


catch me

by totallyrottentomatoes



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Football, Fluff, Gymnastics, M/M, Pining, Underage Drinking, asahi has it bad, cringey american highschool but make it haikyuu, mentions of bullying, new kid azumane asahi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-11
Updated: 2021-01-11
Packaged: 2021-03-09 17:53:42
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 41,160
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27500326
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/totallyrottentomatoes/pseuds/totallyrottentomatoes
Summary: Asahi is used to being the new kid. He's used to eating lunch alone, avoiding conflict, and staying out of the lime light just enough to get by. It only makes sense that at his new school he's wholly unprepared to make best friends, burn down a kitchen at midnight, become a star member of the football team, or to fall in love with the devilishly handsome trouble maker who just might be trying to kill him.Oh yeah, that.
Relationships: Azumane Asahi/Nishinoya Yuu, Hinata Shouyou/Kageyama Tobio
Comments: 47
Kudos: 112





	1. no, i WAS in detention

The waiting is never easy. It’s something about how the chairs in the waiting area of the office are a little too soft, like they’re trying too hard to make you feel at ease. It isn’t working. This is the first thing Asahi really notices about his new high school; the chairs in the admissions office. Though, to be fair, he also notices that the fluorescent lighting makes it impossible to relax, creating a very strange combination with the rest of the décor in the room. It reminds Asahi of a stock photo, like someone googled ‘school office’ and tried to replicate the color palate and design of something meant to look the generic sort of welcoming. The sign on the door with abstract variations of the phrase “knowledge is power” really drives home the effect. Asahi knows he’s picking at little things, but he really does hate the waiting. He wishes he could skip ahead to the part where it’s been enough time for him to feel normal; it’s the uncomfortable adjustment part that he knows is in front of him that he doesn’t like going through. And all he can do is sink into the dingy chair and wish time would pass quicker. 

The door to the office bangs shut, causing Asahi to jump in his seat. He repositions himself to make it less obvious that he was caught off-guard by the sound and peeks out the corner of his eye to see who the newcomer could be. The boy has his back turned to Asahi to speak to the receptionist, so it’s easy to give him a once over. He’s fairly tall, but not quite as tall as Asahi, and has short brown hair. He can hear his voice as he continues his discussion with the middle-aged woman, but he can’t make out what it is that they’re saying. He spoke with the receptionist himself when he arrived at school promptly thirty minutes before his first class. Not too early, but not too late. He wanted to have plenty of time to get his bearings for the first day of class, but also didn’t want to arrive so soon that he’d have to find something to do with himself before his first class of the day. The woman (he tries and fails to remember her name) kindly told him to wait until they could find someone to show him around; subsequently, he’s been watching everyone that comes through the office door. 

Considering how often his family moves, anyone would make the assumption that he’s probably gotten over first day jitters. They’d be wrong. His stomach rolls over and over like waves, each churn causing a new reason to panic to surface. What if he can’t find his locker, or what if he forgot a pencil? He dares not even think about lunch or trying to figure out who to sit with. He starts to get ahead of himself as his worries create a downhill slide and remembers tryouts for teams are after school… Asahi shakes his head at himself, hoping the thought will fly out one of his ears. No. He checks his watch again; the time is now 7:43. There’s still seventeen minutes before class, he tells himself in an attempt to calm his nerves. 

“Hey there!” 

Asahi jumps again; he had been too preoccupied to notice the guy from earlier is now standing in front of him. 

“Hello,” Asahi replies, smiling weakly. 

“Oh, sorry to scare you,” the guy laughs nervously, and his hand rubs the back of his neck. “I have a bad habit of doing that. I’m Daichi, the class president for seniors. I’ll show you around before class and stuff. Do you have your schedule?” 

Asahi rummages into his pocket to pull out the neatly folded paper with his classes on it. He hands it to Daichi, who takes it and studies it. 

“Nice! We have the same first hour class together. Woah, man, you’re in a lot of college prep classes! That’s awesome. I’m in some of these, too.” Daichi steps towards the door and Asahi stands up, throws his bags over his shoulder, and tries again to swallow his nerves before following him out of the office. “This is the common area,” Daichi says, gesturing around them. The space is open and covered in tables and chairs teeming with other high schoolers. Even though Asahi only arrived a short while before, he notes how much busier the common area is now. Daichi has to raise his voice to be heard over the commotion around them. He notices that most tables seat around six to eight kids, with some tables being much more or much less crowded. 

“We also eat lunch in here, but not everyone goes at the same time so it’s easier to get around. We’ll go this way, down the hallway you came in. Did you get your parking pass and everything okay?” Asahi shakes his head. “I don’t have a car, I ride in with my parents.” He knows how lame that probably sounds, but he’s not sure how else to answer Daichi. 

The other boy just nods and continues down the hallway. “Once you get past these classes, which are mostly for freshman anyway, you get to the lockers.” Asahi pays close attention as Daichi shows him where his locker is and how to open it. He has to try a few times before he’s able to successfully do the combination without any help, but eventually he gets comfortable with the motion. Daichi walks him around the building to show him where each of his classes are located, all the while trying to give him inside information about his teachers and studies. He tries to make mental notes of everything Daichi tells him, grateful for the tips. 

“Oh, and for calculus, make sure you have all the updates and programs on your calculator. Mrs. Dacey will make you do the problems by hand, but it helps to know if you’re right or not.” 

“Good to know,” Asahi says thoughtfully. “I’ll have to check and make sure later.” 

“Calculus is one of the classes I’m not in, I took stats. That’s just what my friend Suga always tells me. I’ll see if he knows anything else that might be helpful.” Asahi smiles his thanks. 

“Are you ready to head to class? It’s a little early, but that’ll be fine for your first day.” 

“I forgot to put my gym bag in my locker, do you mind if I run back really quick?” 

“No problem, I can go with you if you want so you don’t get lost.”

Asahi smiles at the proposition, relieved he didn’t need to ask. “Yeah, that would be great.” Daichi is easy enough to talk to, which makes sense if it’s his job to show the new people around. In any case, Asahi is happy for the company. They start to make their way back down the sea of gray lockers; this school is larger than others that Asahi has been to in the past, making it harder to navigate. 

“Have you thought about joining any clubs or anything?” Daichi is clearly asking just to be polite, but Asahi’s heart nearly jumps out of his chest anyway. They’ve made it back to where Asahi’s locker is, so he drops his bags to the floor as he fidgets again with the code. 

“Well, there is a sport…”

“A sport? You’ll be just in time! The last day for official tryouts for teams is today after school if you didn’t already know. Which team were you thinking of going for?” 

“I was thinking-” Before Asahi can finish, a raspy voice behind them yells, “Daichi!” Both Asahi and Daichi stop in their tracks, and Daichi peers over his shoulder with a hint of irritation on his face. Asahi thinks it looks rather unsettling. 

“Nishinoya, what are you doing in the halls?” Daichi’s tone has gone from friendly neighborhood class president to ‘do not test me’ in an instant. Asahi’s eyes widen as he studies the reason for that shift in attitude. The boy Daichi called Nishinoya is short, just over five feet if Asahi had to guess. His hair is spiked up in a tousled manner and his smooth, flawless facial features are pulled into a mischievous smirk. His stance makes him look about ten feet taller than he is; the boy radiates confidence. 

“Let’s just say detention got out early.”

“You’re in detention?” Daichi growls. “We’ve been in class all of two weeks!” Asahi fights the urge to shudder, but Nishinoya lets out an easy laugh. 

“No, I’m not in detention. I was in detention and now I’m in the hallway.” The steam practically rolling off Daichi must get to him because after a pause he adds, “I’m going to return some late work so I can go to practice later today.” He wiggles the papers in his hands as if to prove his point. Daichi must accept his answer because he doesn’t question him further. “Who’s this?” Nishinoya turns his gaze to Asahi, who can feel himself start to sweat. 

“This is Asahi,” Daichi says. “He’s new so I’m showing him around. He started today.” 

“Nice, dude! Are those football cleats?” Asahi looks down at where his bags rest on the floor. The one that holds his workout equipment has untied at the top and his cleats and water bottle peak out just enough to be visible. 

“Uh, yeah,” he squeaks nervously. He bends down and ties his bag quickly, like he’s trying to get rid of the evidence. Nishinoya crosses his arms. 

“You didn’t mention that you play football! So do I,” Daichi says, a hint of excitement in his voice. “So that’s the team you’re going to try out for?” 

“Well, I had been thinking about it, I’m not really sure yet though.” He trails off and looks down at his hands to avoid meeting Daichi’s eyes. He’s been nervous about the idea of joining a new team since he found out his family was moving again. He knew it would be hard enough to be a senior at a new school and adding a whole other aspect into it seemed like a recipe for disaster. But…

“Do you love it?” 

“Pardon?” Daichi questions. Nishinoya ignores him; his eyes are trained on Asahi. For some reason it feels like fire is burning in Asahi’s gut with that intense focus blazing into him. It makes him feel nervous, but not necessarily ‘starting at a new school nervous’. Something different. He doesn’t feel like he’s waiting for something; instead, it’s coming right at him. Asahi doesn’t even have to think about his answer.

“Yeah,” he says. “Yeah, I do.”

“Alright then.” Nishinoya holds up his fist and gives him a smile. Daichi just rolls his eyes. Asahi blinks as Nishinoya heads past them, papers flapping by his side. “See you at practice.” 

“That’s Noya for ya,” Daichi deadpans. He looks back at Asahi. “No pressure, but you might want to hurry with your bags so we have time to make it back to class.”

“Right,” Asahi replies, pulling himself back to the moment. He was somewhat surprised to hear that boy say he was going to be at practice; after all, he seems awfully small to be getting tackled on the field. In any case, he realizes he finally committed to going to tryouts. Not just to himself, but to Nishinoya as well. Someone’s expecting him to go. Too late to back out now. Shit. 

For most of the school day Asahi tries his best to stay out of the spotlight. To his relief, no teachers ask him to introduce himself and there’s an open seat he can fill in every class. He’s still pretty nervous about lunch when it rolls around, but it helps that Daichi’s in that class. They sit together with some of Daichi’s other friends, Sugawara, Tanaka, and Ennoshita are a few of the ones Asahi remembers. There’s another boy that sits with them who looks at a chemistry book most of the break. Asahi thinks they might have said his name, but he can’t recall what it is. Once he settles in, he realizes he enjoys their company. He falls right in with Sugawara and Daichi, who both make a point to include him in their conversations and talking points. Tanaka gives him a side eye for most of the conversation. 

“So you play football, huh?” Sugawara asks him. “What position do you play?” 

“I’m a wide receiver,” Asahi replies slowly. He’s been nervous to try out for the team, sure, but he also enjoys talking about the sport. He’s happy to have other players he knows already to help make him feel more at ease. 

“Ennoshita is a wide receiver, too,” Sugawara replies. Ennoshita grins at him with a mouthful of food. “I’m tight end and Daichi is safety. Tanaka is in the defensive line if you can believe that.” 

Tanaka scoffs at the mention of his name. Asahi chuckles at the sarcasm in Sugawara’s voice; Tanaka does indeed seem like he could play defensive line. He’s not as big as Asahi is, but he can just tell this guy would be nasty to face on the defensive. He’s glad that he’s on their team, even if Tanaka doesn’t seem to have warmed up to Asahi yet. Even as he settles into this routine and enjoys small talk with his new companions, he can’t help himself from looking out over the other people in the common space. He wonders if he’ll catch a glimpse of the boy from this morning, but he remembers what Daichi said about classes having different lunch shifts. He’s not sure what he would even say to him; well, he’s actually fairly certain he wouldn’t be able to say anything at all. The tightening in his chest tells him that’s true, but at the same time, it had been so easy to be honest with Nishinoya earlier. It had felt safe. The conflict between those truths simmers inside him, confusing him even further. He finds himself wanting to ask about Nishinoya. He wants to ask what position he plays, what classes he’s in, if he’s always loved playing football. He squashes these thoughts down well enough, but he admits to himself it won’t be the worst thing in the world to see him at practice again. 

“Hey, guys!” A chipper voice calls out to their table. Asahi looks around to find a short orange haired kid bouncing over to their table and a taller grumpy looking kid trailing behind him. The taller boy is scowling at the former, but he follows him over to the table anyway. “What’s up?” 

“Nothing much, just getting to know Asahi,” Sugawara answers as they begin packing up their lunches. Asahi realizes it’s nearly been twenty minutes and the bell will be sounding soon to send them back to class. The orange haired boy’s gaze shifts over to Asahi, who offers a small wave. 

“Hi! I’m Shouyou Hinata!” He says, plastering on a huge smile. “You’re huge!” Asahi laughs nervously in response and shoots Daichi and Sugawara a look. Daichi just shrugs as if to say, ‘yeah, he’s always like this.’ “And this is Tobio Kageyama!”

“I can introduce myself, dumbass,” the dark-haired boy grumbles, elbowing Hinata in the side. Hinata sticks his tongue out at him but otherwise seems unfazed by the gesture. 

“Daichi, do you think we’ll get to play practice games today? Kageyama and I wanted to know if we’ll scrimmage since it’s the last day of tryouts before we know if we made the team.” Hinata beams at Daichi like the sun, his eyes bright and his tiny body full of movement and energy. Kageyama raises his eyebrows and eyes Daichi, waiting quietly for a response. 

“I can’t tell you guys what we’re doing at practice, I’m not the coach. Plus, it wouldn’t be fair to let you guys in on the plan before everyone else.” Daichi says. Asahi notes how much he sounds like a natural leader and speaks with an undeniable presence. No wonder this guy is class president. 

“You’re the captain, Daichi!” Hinata whines, not seeming disheartened in the least. “Surely you know something!” Asahi isn’t surprised that Daichi is also the captain of the team, even if it does sound like a daunting workload. He’s privately happy to know that he’s already in good graces with the leader of the team and some of the other upperclassmen. 

“I know you’re going to be running extra laps if you keep this up,” Daichi teases. Sugawara and Ennoshita snicker at Hinata’s vigorously shaking head. Kageyama shoots Hinata look and whispers, “shut up,” under his breath. 

“Poor little fresh meat,” Tanaka chides. Threatening the freshman seems to finally have brought him out of his shell. “If we do have a scrimmage, I’m tackling you guys first!” 

“I won’t lose!” Hinata and Kageyama state forcefully in unison. The group shares another laugh as the bell rings, sending the two younger boys running competitively back to class. The remaining members at the lunch table follow their trail back to their respective rooms, muttering ‘goodbyes’ and ‘see you laters’. Asahi follows Sugawara as they head to calculus together. 

“Those two seem close,” he notes, referring to Hinata and Kageyama. 

“Really?” Sugawara lets out a laugh. “I guess it’s not that hard to tell. They’ve been best friends for as long as I can remember.”

“And they play football, too?” Asahi questions. He’s curious about all the new teammates he’s meeting, and he hopes that knowing some more members of the team will help him feel less like a fish out of water at practice. 

“Yeah. Kageyama is a naturally talented football player even though he’s so young. He’s always played on traveling teams with us older guys, so there’s no question that he can make the cut. He’ll make the team for sure. Hinata has always come to games and hung around Kageyama, but he just started playing football seriously recently. It took a lot of convincing from Kageyama for him to even consider playing, but now he’s so competitive that you’d never believe that. He has crazy reflexes and speed, it’s scary how good he is when he gets in the zone.” Sugawara smiles fondly. 

“You’ve known them for a long time, then.”

“You could say that. I used to babysit Hinata and his younger sister.” Asahi nods his head and imagines the patience Sugawara must have to watch the little ball of enthusiasm he met at lunch. And two of them. Asahi suppresses a shudder. Sugawara slides him a piece of paper before sitting and says, “I wrote down the programs you should download.”

“Thanks,” Asahi replies with a smile. He takes his seat and pulls out his materials, ready for another round of class. He thinks about how his day really hasn’t been that bad; more interesting than he might have liked, to be sure, but so far so good with everything else. He supposes he has Daichi and Sugawara to thank for that so far. He’s had friends before at other schools, some he even keeps in touch with still. Since he’s been in high school, though, he doesn’t think he’s had a group of friends that accepted him so easily. He hopes it stays that way. If nothing else, Asahi knows he’ll be needing someone to study with for calc; Mrs. Dacey makes it very clear that she expects him to catch up to where the rest of the class is. 

Even though he normally dreads the first day of classes, Asahi has to admit everything has gone pretty smoothly. His last class just let out, and he makes his way back to his locker to grab his football things. He made sure to ask Daichi where to meet and when practice started, so he knows he has all the right information. Even so, he still has to clutch his hands into fists as he walks towards the locker room to keep them from shaking. This is the part of the day he’s been most nervous for. Making friends is something he’s grateful for, but at the end of the day he wants to feel at home on the field. It’s been a while since he had that. Before the nervous churning in his stomach can return and stop him, he takes a deep breath and opens the locker room door.


	2. what's it look like to you?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Enter the reason hell fury will rain down on Asahi

No one in the locker room seems to pay him any mind. Everyone is changing, laughing, and generally being loud and obnoxious. Despite himself Asahi feels his shoulders relax. He supposes this part doesn’t change. He doesn’t look too hard for anyone he recognizes; he lets himself get swept up in the commotion and follows the crowd of everyone else. This part makes it easy to blend in, which he’s grateful for. He doesn’t feel out of place or awkward for it being his first day; no one even notices. He goes through the motions he’s done a hundred times of putting on his gear, pulling his hair back, and tying his cleats so they hug his feet perfectly. He grabs his water bottle and takes a final swig before heading out the doors into the afternoon sun. 

He breathes a sigh of relief once he’s made it out to the field, changed and ready to go. Walking out onto the freshly cut grass weighed down by his pads with his helmet in hand makes Asahi’s chest swell. Even for all his nerves and anticipation, it feels right for him to standing here. He turns his head to face the stands and takes in the measure of his surroundings. The stands look they could hold the entirety of his last high school and then some, and one of the sections is labeled ‘pep band’. Asahi’s chest flutters at the idea of playing a game under the night sky with an actual pep band in the background. He holds a hand up to block out the sun from his eyes, sweat already rolling down his back from the heat of it. He pictures himself instead blocking out the lights pointed at the field between plays. He can practically hear the whistles, the cheers, teammates yelling, and the buzz of the electric atmosphere. It’s been a while since he practiced or played officially, but everything feels the same. Like he never stopped. He remembers the feeling of the ball cradled in his arms as his legs pump to carry him past blockers. A smile creeps onto his lips.

“Asahi!” He turns his head to see Sugawara waving his way and jogging over to him. “I didn’t see you come down here!” He’s flanked by Ennoshita and Daichi, both waving their hello from behind him. The other players are still trickling down to the field, grouping up to talk or toss a ball around as they wait for practice to start. 

“Hey, guys,” Asahi waves back and trots over to join them. “It looks like this is a pretty big team.”

Daichi nods his head. “It is. We have a reputation for our football team here, so we get a lot of people trying out.” He pauses for a second before adding, “I wish everyone would be able to make the team.” There’s something heavy and telling in his voice that gives Asahi the impression Daichi doesn’t enjoy every aspect of his role as team leader. Asahi nods his head knowingly in response. Daichi turns his head away from them and back to the team. 

“I’m going to get everyone together so we can start stretches.” Sugawara and Ennoshita nod and start to walk back towards the growing group of boys around the base of one of the field goals. As Daichi approaches, they seem to automatically start forming a chaotic circle for stretches and warm up. Asahi turns his head one more time to look up at the stands. On the track, some cheerleaders are starting to gather, making the energy even more game-like. 

“You coming?” Asahi hears Sugawara’s voice calling out to him. 

“Yeah,” Asahi catches up with Sugawara and they both join the circle to the best of their ability. Near them, Asahi can hear Hinata and Kageyama fighting about who can stretch farthest. 

“No fair, Kageyama!” The orange-haired boy whines softly. “Your arms are longer.”

“Hush up, dumbass! Daichi is gonna get mad.” Quiet for a moment, then, “my arms are longer but so are my legs, so I’m still stretching farther.” Asahi can hear Tanaka snicker from somewhere in the crowd. They manage not to get in trouble for their bickering, as Daichi’s attention is focused on the boy with the oddly spiked black hair.

“Kuroo! Get your ass over here and leave the kickers alone.” Kuroo grins widely and in rebellion he pushes a smaller boy with dyed blonde hair onto his side out of his perched stretching position before returning to the group. Asahi swears he hears Daichi growl. ‘Do not cross that man', Asahi notes internally with a shudder, remembering the time this morning when scary Daichi came out. 

Kageyama and Hinata quiet down after this display, and Asahi swears he can see the smaller boy visibly pout at losing the ridiculous stretching competition. During their warmups, Asahi can account for everyone he’s met on the team so far. Everyone save one person. 

Asahi lets his excitement get the better of him towards the end of stretches and turns to Sugawara to ask the question that’s been on his mind since this morning. “Where’s Nishinoya?” 

Sugawara’s eyebrows scrunch together in confusion and he switches his stretch from his left side to his right side. “You met Noya?” He asks. Asahi nods and relays their encounter in the hallway, which earns him a laugh. 

“Detention? Already?” 

“Daichi wasn’t too pleased either,” Asahi replies. 

“Alright, we’re going to split up for drills now!” Their conversation is cut short by the captain’s instructions. “We’ll start things off with passing drills with offense and defense before we split up by position.” Asahi hears Daichi continue to run through the outline of their practice before the coach takes over with specifics. As Asahi starts off in the direction of his assigned location, Sugawara tips his head to him. 

“Noya should be around here somewhere,” he offers before joining his group. Asahi wonders if he would be so bold as to be late to practice or miss warmups. He seemed confident, sure, but not lazy or stupid. Surely Daichi wouldn’t let anyone on his team get away with something like that, but no one else seemed worried for his well-being. Asahi tries to tell himself that it’s not his issue; he doesn’t know a thing about Nishinoya (other than that he seems to be a bit of a troublemaker). He shakes his head at himself and jogs over to join his teammates. Nobody Asahi recognizes is in his group, but they all seem friendly enough. Well, all of them other than tall blonde boy standing with his hand on his hip, his head tilted up slightly to give him an even greater height advantage. Despite his obviously skinny frame, Asahi shakes a little at his look of indifference. He seems to be an effortlessly skilled player; he keeps pace and does well in the drills without ever looking like he’s trying. He’s one of the only boys Asahi can see that’s taller than he is, which makes Asahi wonder about his age. Even though he’s curious, the snide looks and comments keep him from making small talk with the boy. 

Asahi manages to run through the drills and plays without any mistakes. He’s feeling in the groove, but he can tell the other boys are used to the exertion and the heat. He had been nervous about being out of shape; he runs and works out regularly, but it’s not the same as going to practice every day like they have been. There’s nothing to be done about that now, he chides himself. All he can do is give it his all. He focuses intensely on every task, catch, throw, and play. For the next two hours, his muscles work as hard as possible to keep up and shine above the pack. He starts to feel a familiar fire in his chest, and though he would never admit it, he starts to repeat what he heard his underclassmen say earlier today: I won’t lose. 

Finally, Daichi calls them all together again. Asahi’s mind clears from calls and plays long enough to search again for Nishinoya. Surely he would have seen him by now if he were around; he can’t imagine he would be the type to hide in a crowd. Asahi starts to feel flustered and has to tell himself to focus on what Daichi is telling them. He realizes he must have missed something because people are starting to shift and form lines. He panics momentarily before he realizes Daichi is splitting them into teams and he hasn’t gotten to Asahi yet. He breathes a small sigh of relief as Daichi numbers him off with one of the teams. 

“We’ll play a few small games with these teams and then we’ll move to a more official scrimmage. For now, sort out the positions with each other and we’ll divide up QB’s and other extra positions.” Daichi rejoins his team as the coach splits them up into four teams and explains the shortened style of play. Daichi says all of this very matter-of-factly, but everyone buzzes with excitement over the prospect of playing a game. Daichi seems pleased by their response to the news and even joins in some of the side conversation and only quiets when the coach speaks again. 

“After we go through some plays, I’ll choose two teams based off your skill sets.” The coach finishes before returning to the sidelines. The slew of assistant coaches all stand near the field to act as referees. Asahi’s team jogs quickly over to their side of the field as they were instructed. Asahi notes that Tanaka is on his team along with Sugawara and Kageyama. The latter carries a playbook, causing Asahi’s eyes to widen. 

“You’re a quarterback?” He questions. He’s not sure why that surprises him other than his age. Freshman wouldn’t normally be trusted with that much team responsibility, especially considering how often they have to call plays under pressure. Kageyama seems unphased by his question.

“Yeah,” is all he replies. Asahi gives Sugawara a look, his eyebrow raised. 

“Just wait until you see him play,” Sugawara says. Asahi drops the subject and the team starts to discuss their positions and plays while their opponents do the same. Asahi notices that Hinata is on the other team, and he also notices his orange head jerking over to look at their huddle from time to time. He thinks about what Sugawara said about them being inseparable and wonders how the game will be with them facing each other. He also feels Tanaka’s searing gaze on the back of his head and tries his best to ignore the unsettling feeling he gets from it. Sugawara slaps the back of his head and hisses, “cut that out!” 

After a while the team breaks apart, ready to start the game. Asahi focuses back in on the task in front of him: score, block, make the catch, or whatever he needs to do. He loves the feeling of being on offense, of making it past the blockers on a breakaway. He closes his eyes and waits for the play to start. He focuses on the burning he feels in his legs. They’re tired, to be sure, but they’re itching to go all out and carry him into the end zone. He imagines the feeling in his chest when he knows that no one will catch him, even though they’re close behind him, just as sure that they’ll pull him down before he has the chance to score. He’s ready to chase that feeling. He lets out a slow breath and opens his eyes to take in the measure of the field. When the play starts, he’s ready. 

Over the course of their games, Asahi plays well. So do the other players, and their shortened games end in a 1-1 draw. Asahi’s dripping in sweat as their team huddles together after their last touchdown that put them ahead of the other team. Asahi has to admit, Kageyama is amazing. His throws are so precise that it’s scary, even if they are hard to catch at times. For their last point, Asahi was just narrowly open for a second, but the instant there was enough space for the ball to slip past the blockers reach it was cradled in Asahi’s chest. Tanaka had gotten up from his position on a blocker and ran over to Asahi, yelling his fool head off in celebration before Asahi knew what hit him. He smiles triumphantly, thinking that that small act of acceptance was even better than winning the game. 

After marking him most of their game, Asahi can confirm that Hinata is the fastest and the sneakiest player he’s ever had to keep up with. He always seems too far ahead of where the other QB can throw the ball, so he doesn’t score many points during their games, but Asahi is wary of him nonetheless. He seems to have endless energy, and even now in the pause of their game he bounces over to Kageyama asking for throws. Asahi thinks of his own fatigue; he knows he’s just barely hanging on. They still have a full scrimmage to play before the end of practice. Everything in him is as tired as it is fired up for more, but he knows he won’t be able to keep playing at this rate forever. He pays close attention to the other players in his position. They seem to be playing without many faults, which makes Asahi even more apprehensive to be going against them for a spot on the field. Sugawara sets a hand on his back as they break for water. 

“You’re playing really good out there, Asahi!” He gives him a large smile. 

“Same to you, Suga,” and he means it. Sugawara is a player with an insane amount of tact; even though he’s not the strongest or fastest player, he makes himself indispensable. The two recount some of their highlights during the game, Asahi’s brain still buzzing with the excitement of it all. He really has missed practice and everything that comes with it. 

“What a stud!” Asahi hears Tanaka’s voice yelling. There’s a muffled commotion from the sidelines in response, but Asahi doesn’t think much of it. Tanaka seems to be like that with a lot of the guys he considers friends. 

“Dammit, don’t yell when I’m holding someone, Tanaka!” 

Wait. 

“Sorry, bro,” Tanaka’s reply is barely audible because he’s farther away from Asahi now. He can hear two guys speaking and laughing from that direction. Asahi knows that other voice; it’s been ringing in his ears all day. He whirls around to face the direction Tanaka ran off to, desperate to see the boy with that electric intonation. 

Sure enough, when Asahi turns, he can see Tanaka standing over by the sidelines with his back facing the field. Asahi instantly recognizes the other shorter frame to be that of the boy from the hallway this morning. The one he can’t get out of his head. Tanaka’s holding Nishinoya over his head in a plank position, although Asahi notes that it looks like he’s doing a good deal of squirming. Both boys laugh and continue to make a scene, even after Sugawara yells over to them to knock it off. Asahi cocks his head to the side as he realizes that Nishinoya isn’t wearing football pads, a helmet, or cleats. He’s adorned in a tight shirt that shows his muscles coiled beneath it, athletic shorts, and white sneakers. His hair is spiked but falling down in some areas clinging to the sweat rolling down his face. Tanaka finally throws him back to his feet, rather ungracefully, and they both turn to Sugawara. Nishinoya’s gaze locks immediately with Asahi’s, and for a moment he freezes still. Something about that look makes Asahi feel like he’s stuck, completely transfixed, unable to peel away. 

“Look who decided to show up,” Nishinoya regards him from the sidelines. He gives him a casual smirk and puts his hands on his hips. Sugawara says something else to him and he finally looks away from Asahi, allowing him to breathe again. Only then does he take in the surroundings. Nishinoya is standing with a couple other boys he doesn’t recognize that are dressed to match his attire. The cheerleaders stand near them, talking to some of the boys offhandedly. Is that a… Sure enough, in Nishinoya’s hand there’s an orange and black pompom. How had he not noticed before? On the track there are matts laid out, signs, and megaphones scattered around them along with other dejected pompoms and ribbons. Asahi scrunches his eyebrows together in confusion.

“Are you a cheerleader?” He blurts before he can stop himself. Nishinoya’s still about ten yards away from him, but he turns his head to Asahi’s direction anyway. He raises an eyebrow.

“What’s it look like to you?” He wags the pompom in front of his face sarcastically. One of the girls behind him gives Asahi a questioning look before she taps Nishinoya’s shoulder and says something to him. He nods in reaction to whatever was said and turns back to his group. Tanaka has jogged over to rejoin where Sugawara and Asahi stand. 

“You didn’t know he was a cheerleader?” Sugawara asks, his eyebrows knitted together in a question. “But you asked about him earlier.”

“You asked about Noya?” Tanaka says skeptically, folding his arms over his chest. Sugawara looks at him out of the corner of his eye and sighs. 

“I sort of thought he played football,” Asahi admits, still sounding as dumbfounded as he feels. His previous school had a small cheerleading and dance team, but no boys were members. 

“Yeah, well, he doesn’t,” Tanaka says defensively. “That a problem?” 

Asahi’s eyes widen. “No, no, not at all!” He’s even more flustered now, his arms waving frantically. “That’s not what I meant!”

“What did you mean, then?” 

“Nothing, I swear!”

“Enough, Tanaka,” Sugawara says. “We’re splitting teams up so focus on what the coach says. Asahi didn’t say anything about Noya, they just met earlier today.” Tanaka doesn’t stop glaring at Asahi, but he does listen to Sugawara and drop the subject. 

“Nishinoya’s really good at gymnastics and stuff, so yeah he’s a cheerleader.” Sugawara doesn’t seem like he’s forthcoming with the details about it, and it takes all of Asahi’s willpower not to question him further. He turns back to watch Nishinoya just in time to see him execute some combination of jumps and flips on the mats, to which the other cheerleaders clap and slap his back. Even with the distance between them, Asahi can see the wild smile that spreads across his face on the landing. 

The lights flicker overhead and buzz to life. Asahi realizes it’s much later in the day than he thought, and the sun is starting to set. From what he understands it’s normally like this, and it shows in the way the other boys are still energized and pumped for their scrimmage. Hinata zips around Kageyama as they set up the next game. The coach divides them into two teams; Asahi has Kageyama and Hinata on his team, which he’s thankful for. Daichi is also on their team this round, but Sugawara, Tanaka, Ennoshita, and anyone else he recognizes are on the opposing team. He tries to reorient himself in the game, but after their short break his muscles have started to stiffen. Not yet, he wills. Just a little longer. 

The game, in short, is a disaster. From the beginning Asahi can tell he’s starting to tire. He does his best to keep up, but he fumbles the ball and misses more balls than he catches. It’s not like him to play this way, but he can’t help that his limbs feel tight and frozen when he tries to reach out for a catch or toss. Even his mind starts to fatigue as the game goes on; he has more trouble being in the right place for the right play. He manages not to do anything too condemning, but he’s not keeping up with the others like he was before, he knows this. And then there’s Tanaka. He switches his position in the defensive line after a short while in the game to block Asahi. He manages to get around him or push past him on occasion using his size and overall strength, but Tanaka is scrappy and almost always catches him. It’s clear he’s somehow pissed the kid off again, but he’s not sure how to deal with it on the field. He’s actually not sure how he would start that confrontation even if they weren’t in the middle of a game. His insides shrivel at the thought of it. Regardless, Tanaka has no trouble jamming him at almost every turn. Eventually, Kageyama starts to throw more elsewhere. Namely to Hinata, and for all of the issues he’s causing for the team, that duo is on fire. He can’t stop himself from cheering them on and celebrating in their victories even though he’s playing horribly. They still lose the match to the other team, though, and Asahi has to admit that the other QB earned the right to come out on top. He doesn’t miss the small interactions between the other boy and Kageyama, and he makes a note to ask Sugawara about that later. 

When the game finally comes to a close, he’s relieved. He’s so spent he hardly pays any attention through the team break and end of the day stretches. He’s filling up his water bottle for the hundredth time when Daichi approaches him. 

“Asahi!” Where Asahi might have jumped at the sudden call of his name earlier, his tired muscles don’t even manage a surprised twitch now. Daichi scans him and lets out a chuckle. “Listen, I know you played really well earlier in the practices. You’re one of the strongest players when you’re at your best.”

Asahi can all but hear the ‘but’ coming after the compliment. He busies himself taking off his gloves and avoids looking up. Please don’t say I didn’t make the team, he pleads to himself, I’m not ready to be done with this team. Or this game. 

“But you’re not in the best shape right now. I mean, I know you're new,” Daichi lowers his voice, “but there’s plenty of people on this team who can play a whole game without stopping. I think you’d be a valuable member of the team, and so does the coach. You have to work on your stamina, though.” 

Asahi nods his head. Better than he thought. As long as he can play, he’ll take it. “I’ll do my best to get back in shape. You can count on me.”

Daichi looks pleased with his answer. “Good. I’ll tell the coach you said that.” He starts off back to the locker room. “You coming?”

Asahi considers this. “Not yet,” he responds. He sits down on the grass and continues to stretch out his screaming muscles. After a while he gives up and lays on his back, listening to the sounds of the bugs and the chatter of the other guys heading off to go home. He knows he should do the same, but he’s not ready for it to be over just yet. As long as he’s on the field, football is what matters. His chest untwists slightly as he thinks about the fact he’s got more practices to look forward to. He’s not off the team. He has to get better somehow, but he can figure that out, he’s sure of it.

“You really ate shit out there towards the end.”

Asahi’s eyes fly open. Nishinoya is standing over him with that sly grin spread across his face. He’s bent over studying Asahi, like he wanted to see how he would react to the insult. His tone was lighthearted but firm, a combination that Asahi is surprised to find endearing. All Asahi can do is stare at him and his dark, focused eyes. 

“Uh, yeah,” he says stupidly. Nishinoya tosses his head back and lets out a laugh. 

“Geez, man, you weren’t supposed to agree with me.” To Asahi’s surprise, Nishinoya plops down on the field and sprawls out next to him. Asahi has no idea what to say, so he opts for saying nothing at all. He doesn’t move, either, because Nishinoya doesn’t. “You made some pretty amazing catches in the other games, though.”

Asahi’s face turns bright red, but he can’t bring himself to look over. He’s too afraid of how he would feel if Nishinoya was looking back. 

“You were watching?” The question escapes his mouth before he has the chance to stop it. He’s taken aback by how incredibly uncertain he sounds. 

“Of course. Had to keep my eyes on the new kid, obviously.” Asahi can feel the warmth on his cheeks spreading, heating him to a deep red color. He clears his throat timidly. He wants to say, ‘I saw you too’, or ‘your flips were amazing’, or something else, but the words never come. He doesn’t even let himself think the phrases that come to mind about how amazing Nishinoya looked when he landed a jump or twist. When those images pop into his head, he shakes his head slightly and pinches his eyes shut tighter. The fact that he wants very badly to return the comment to Nishinoya makes the silence feel heavy to Asahi. He wonders if Nishinoya feels that too or if it’s just in his head. He starts to worry that Nishinoya will get bored and leave, so he tries again to think of something to say. 

“Daichi said I need more stamina.” The words come out as a whisper, something he did not intend. “I, uh, haven’t played competitively in a while.” 

“Oh yeah, that makes sense.” Nishinoya responds to him and makes a humming sound, like he’s thinking. “I could help you out.”

“What?” 

“I could help you get back into shape.” Nishinoya pushes himself up onto his elbows. “You know, like with training and stuff.”

“But you’re a cheerleader,” Asahi says in confusion. Then he stiffens. He pushes himself up in a rush, apologies tumbling out of his mouth, but Nishinoya is already on his feet walking away. “Wait! I didn’t mean it like that!”

Nishinoya doesn’t turn around. “I know how you meant it.” 

Asahi catches up to him and puts a hand lightly on his shoulder to stop him from moving. He doesn’t overthink or chicken out; nothing is scarier to him in this moment than the thought of this boy walking away from him angry. For some reason, the thought of him not smiling that cheeky smile at him again turns his blood to ice in his veins. “Okay, maybe that is how I meant it. But I know it was stupid to say it and I know I was wrong to think it, even for a second. I saw you today, too. I can’t imagine how much strength it must take for you to do what you do for hours and hours.” He stutters for a second, not really sure how to address the flips or whatever cheerleaders do. Nishinoya turns back to him, his expression stone. Asahi has to remind himself he’s almost a foot taller than this boy who seems larger than life. “And I don’t deserve your help.” 

“True.”

“But I would be honored to have it.” Asahi means it. 

Nishinoya’s expression changes as a wicked grin spreads across his face. He tilts his head up menacingly and says, “I’ll make you eat those words you said.” Asahi’s eyes widen and he removes his hand from Nishinoya’s shoulder to take a step back. The sheer force of the challenge in Nishinoya’s tone feels like a wave pushing Asahi away. That must not be the case, though, because Nishinoya steps forward to close the newfound distance between them, his dark eyes shining. “Tomorrow.” This time, when Nishinoya walks away from him, Asahi lets him go.


	3. i just accosted you

“RIIIIIING!”

Asahi jumps up in his bed so quickly that his elbow thwacks against his bedroom wall. His first though is that his alarm is going off for school. He looks around wildly and realizes that not only is it still dark outside, but it’s also Saturday. He rummages around for his blaring phone, ready to shut it off and continue his sleep. His adrenaline is high from being startled awake, and when he finally does get a hand on his phone all he manages to do is push it over the edge of his bed. Cursing himself he reaches to the ground and inspects the screen through squinted eyes. It’s not his alarm; he has an incoming call from and unsaved number. He answers quickly with a gruff, “hello?”

“GOOOOD MORNING!” The snide voice comes blasting through the speaker so loudly that Asahi has to pull the phone away from his ear. “Meet me at the field in thirty minutes.” The line goes dead before Asahi has the chance to respond. He’s not even sure how Nishinoya ended up with his phone number, but he doesn’t have time to dwell on the details. The fact is that he does need help with his stamina; he should be doing extra work anyway. He checks the time on the screen of his phone, and it glares back at him: 4:43 am. Asahi shuts his eyes and groans for just a moment before pushing himself off the bed. A blush rises on his cheeks as he remembers the last time that he saw Nishinoya he was practically begging him for help. He wonders how on earth he is going to face him after being so bold. Despite his reservations he hurriedly gets ready because, if he’s honest, he’s scared of what will happen if he’s late. He dresses in less than five minutes and is on his bike before he’s even sure his eyes are fully open. 

Asahi grimaces as he realizes his legs are protesting with every peddle. He tries not to think about how much worse it will be after Nishinoya exacts his revenge. Though he’s still not convinced that a cheerleader’s routine will be as demanding as the football practice he’s already been subjected to, he tries to keep an open mind. It’s not that he can’t tell Nishinoya is in shape, because he definitely can (he again pushes away the thoughts that threaten to push their way into his head). He winces at these thoughts as though Nishinoya can hear them; he believes Nishinoya about making him regret saying these thoughts aloud. He’s still not sure he’s entirely awake as he locks his bike up near the track and field. 

“Good morning, sunshine!” Asahi’s heart tries to jump out of his throat at that bright, confident voice. Traitor. He tries not to act too nervous for what’s in store for him as he turns to head towards the field. Asahi cocks his head when he realizes that he can’t see Nishinoya anywhere. He scans the area slowly as if the smaller boy will pop out of the ground if he looks hard enough. 

“Up here!” 

Asahi turns to see Nishinoya lounging on the railing of the bleachers. He looks effortlessly handsome in his gray sweatpants and his cheerleading sweatshirt. The morning has a bit of a chill, and the sun hasn’t quite risen yet, but Asahi didn’t even think to bring warmer clothes. It’s still the hottest part of the year, after all. His hair isn’t spiked up like it was yesterday; today it falls around his ears, the tips threatening to curl up just slightly. Asahi notices that the front pieces of his hair are just slightly lighter than the rest of it, standing in a striking contrast with his otherwise dark complexion. His features are lifted into his cocky smirk, and Asahi nearly groans out loud when he realizes what that means.  
“What are you waiting for?” Nishinoya taunts. Asahi pales a little remembering the devilish grin on Nishinoya’s face the day before. He swallows the lump in his throat and jogs up to the bleachers. 

“You look pretty tired,” Nishinoya lilts innocently. Asahi wonders if the taunting will ever end. He opens his mouth to protest, but as he does Nishinoya starts to reach his hand out and up towards Asahi. He panics for a second and completely freezes as Nishinoya sets his hand against Asahi’s forehead. He frowns for a second before pushing his hand up, guiding Asahi’s baby hairs away from his eyes. He starts to feel extremely self-conscious; he got ready in such a hurry that his long hair is held back only by a lazily done ponytail. Nishinoya’s frown disappears and he slides his hand away from Asahi’s face. 

“You should wear a headband.” 

“Huh?” Asahi says stupidly. His mind is still rushing from the uninvited contact. 

“A headband.” Nishinoya raises an eyebrow at him. “For having such nice hair, you really don’t know how to do it very well.” 

Asahi’s face turns bright red. “It’s not like I had a lot of time!”

“I’m pretty good at hair, you know. Since I’m a cheerleader.” Something in Nishinoya’s tone sounds like a threat. His face is impassive, pulled into a smooth grin. Asahi lets out a sigh. 

“I said I was sorry,” Asahi tries desperately. This was exactly the situation he had been hoping to avoid altogether. 

“For what?” Nishinoya’s expression twitches just slightly, his shoulders stiffening. Asahi notices how he seems like he’s ready for something, though Asahi isn’t sure what. Seeing it makes the tension in the air feel thick again. ‘It’s too early for this’, is all he can think. The grogginess looming in Asahi’s brain clouds his usual over thinking tendencies when he finally speaks. 

“You could do it for me.” He starts to imagine those chilled fingers running through his hair before he has time to process what he said. Nishinoya doesn’t respond right away, so he adds, “you know so it doesn’t look so bad.” 

Nishinoya’s eyes widen for a second, as though he wasn’t expecting that response. Asahi thinks he might have overstepped, but then Nishinoya’s lips curl into a slight grin. Not a smirk or a taunt, but the beginnings of an actual smile. Asahi’s heart flutters. Traitor, he thinks again absently. 

“Not a chance in hell,” Nishinoya replies when he finally speaks. His eyebrows knit back together, and his confident smile take over his features again. “Run up those bleachers until I say you can stop.” 

Asahi wants to protest or be angry at this, but he can’t stop the lighthearted happiness he feels now that the things between him and Nishinoya feel settled. He runs the bleachers and forgets for a while how badly his legs burn. 

The first few weeks that Nishinoya help him practice seem to do more harm than good. Truthfully, Asahi has never felt worse in his whole life. It doesn’t make him better at practice, especially not at first. He practices most of the afternoon with the team, but in the mornings, he meets Nishinoya for runs and after practice he stays later to lift weights. Daichi and Suga always give him sympathetic, knowing looks when he peels off to go catch up with Nishinoya after practice or scrimmages. 

Worst of all, Nishinoya is making his life a living hell no matter what work outs they’re doing. Asahi bristles slightly thinking about the fact that no matter what they do, Nishinoya is never loses steam at practice. Seriously, he’s not sure what that kid is eating. The only thing Asahi has him beat in is lifting, but Asahi can’t even be pleased with this victory given his natural advantage. Asahi watches from the field as Nishinoya lands another perfect back tuck or catches a flyer perfectly (he’s been reading up on some terminology so he doesn’t make a fool of himself when Nishinoya talks about it) and continues to be amazed at him. His natural athleticism and talent seem to shine all the brighter when they run extra in the morning or when they lift more the night before. Asahi can’t even be upset or jealous when he thinks about all of this; he’s just blown away. When they meet up after practice Asahi always finds himself one breath away from spilling all these thoughts to Nishinoya, but then he’ll throw on that confident grin immediately start in about his newest form of Asahi-torture and all the words die in Asahi’s throat. 

If there’s one thing Asahi does notice a change in, it’s his stupid body. Not that he looks stronger or that his muscles are bigger or anything of the sort; physically, everything seems the same. It’s his pesky feelings that have started to cause a problem. He couldn’t even pinpoint when it happened, specifically, but he can feel himself reacting to everything about Nishinoya. When he’s spotting him, when they’re running side by side, when they share a drink after completing a workout. When he makes a good play in practice, his first reaction is to look and see if Nishinoya saw it. In class or at lunch or in the morning while he’s waiting for class to start, he scans the area for him, almost on instinct. He notices the changes in Nishinoya’s appearance each day and notes the little things about him; how the dyed tips of his hair are growing out, if only a little, how his cheeks flare red after a stunt he’s been working on finally goes right, how he always has to shake his hands in the morning to warm them up even if it’s warm. 

Most of all, Asahi notices all the things that Nishinoya doesn’t do. He notices that he always says goodbye easily when all Asahi wants is for them to stay in the gym sitting on the hard bleachers together for a moment longer. He notices how he waves when they see each other in the hallway, but he never looks like he wants to say more that he’s keeping to himself. Asahi feels those things every day. One morning, it occurred to Asahi to wear his hair messily to their early morning weekend workout. For no reason, he told himself at the time. He let his shorter hairs fall loosely around his ears and forehead, even though he had long since purchased a headband. When he met up with Nishinoya, he had scanned his appearance with an amused smirk. “Bedhead, much?” Asahi had chuckled nervously. He’s not sure what he expected; or at least he tries to make himself think that, instead of thinking about the day Nishinoya had pressed his hand against Asahi’s forehead. So, regardless of what his reactions and Nishinoya’s lack of, he grows used to their rituals and norms. He likes them; he decides that even if it’s not all that he wants, it can be enough. 

“Let’s be done early today,” Nishinoya says after they’ve already been going at it for about two hours one Saturday. Asahi’s laying on the field flat on his back but he picks his head up instantly. 

“What?” He practically yells. Nishinoya has never let them be done early. They never leave on the weekends until they’re both ready to collapse, which takes Nishinoya significantly longer than it takes Asahi. Nishinoya shrugs at his surprise, letting it roll off. Asahi continues to stare like Nishinoya’s head just popped open. 

“It’s no big deal, I’ve just got plans,” Nishinoya says coolly. Asahi’s chest twists. He can’t help but feel like Nishinoya is dipping out on him, even though he knows it’s not fair to think so. It’s not like he’s entitled to Nishinoya’s entire weekend. The unpleasant feeling in his gut threatens to remind him that he does in fact think that, but he pushes those feelings aside. He tries to keep a level look on his face; he doesn’t want to selfishly reveal his disappointment to Nishinoya. 

“Plans,” Asahi says, trying to mimic Nishinoya’s unbothered tone. He’s not sure he nails it, but it’s better than his own unsteady voice. “Okay.” Nishinoya starts to pack his things. Asahi lets his head flop back down on the ground. He’s not sure what else to say that won’t make him sound clingy or annoying. 

“You got anything going on? It is the weekend.” 

“Nope.” Asahi realizes that’s probably lame and wonders if he should have lied and made up his own reason for needing to skirt out early as well. He supposes he could call Daichi or Sugawara. He’s not even sure what those two would be doing on a weekend. Nishinoya looks at him out of the corner of his eye suspiciously. Asahi wonders if it’s too late to think of that lie. 

“You look like a sad puppy.” 

“I do not!”

Nishinoya sighs. “Okay fine. You can come with me. But only because I need you for something.” He says it like he’s doing Asahi a huge favor. “A senior with no awesome weekend plans, good lord,” he adds under his breath. Asahi just blinks at him from his horizontal position on the ground. 

“Chop chop, man bun!” 

Asahi works on processing this situation as he walks with Nishinoya to his car. He would probably be very nervous right about now if he had the ability for complex thought. All he can think about is how Nishinoya broke their routine like it was nothing, and now the territory is uncharted. He’s not even sure where they’re going, much less how he should act around Nishinoya or whoever these plans are with. They’re in his car, not on the field or the gym or anything else. Somehow it feels suffocatingly close to be seated in the passenger seat of Nishinoya’s car. Looking over at Nishinoya’s side profile makes him blush furiously, so he immediately redirects his gaze to his hands in his lap. 

“How are you such a badass on the field but a wimp everywhere else?”

“Come again?”

“I just accosted you. Seriously, dude, I just told you I needed you to come with me and you did. For a big, tall guy, you sure would be easy to kidnap.” Nishinoya lets out a laugh. Asahi tilts his head and has to stop himself from saying that there’s really not anywhere he wouldn’t follow Nishinoya to. 

“In this case would my kidnapper like to tell me where we’re going?” 

“To my house first. I need to change and grab some stuff.” 

“Wait, should I change?” Asahi looks nervously at his sweaty old hooded sweatshirt. “I’ll look like a mess.” Nishinoya just waves his hand.

“You look good when you’re all ruffed up.” Asahi’s eyes widen for a second and he flicks his gaze up to Nishinoya’s. Asahi watches as he snaps his mouth shut and his face tinges pink. He quickly recovers and slides his easy smirk onto his face, but Asahi swears Nishinoya looked embarrassed. Asahi doesn’t think he’s ever seen him look flustered, even for a second. A day of firsts. 

They ride in comfortable silence for the rest of the ride. Nishinoya has a CD playing quietly in the background, but it sounds like rock music that Asahi doesn’t recognize. He almost reaches his hand out to turn the radio up for the chance to see what kind of music Nishinoya likes. It seems like it would be a good thing to know about him. The drive is short enough that he doesn’t get the chance, however, and before long they’re standing in front of a quaint blue house. 

“You can come in and make yourself at home. I just need to grab some other gym stuff before we head out.” Nishinoya says casually. Asahi thinks he might have died as he realizes he’s going to be in Nishinoya’s house. The house is surprisingly tidy for what Asahi would have expected, and for the most part it’s quiet as well. It only takes Nishinoya a second to come back out of his room still wrestling a new shirt over his head. Asahi awkwardly watches as he fidgets to get the shirt on straight and attempts to slow his quickening heart. He’s not sure if it would be more suspicious to look away, so he just stares straight ahead instead. He knows that Nishinoya is fit, but suddenly he becomes very aware of just how much so. Nishinoya swings a gym bag over his shoulder and cocks an eyebrow at Asahi. 

“What?” 

“Nothing!” He says too quickly. Quiet, he tells his pesky thoughts that scream at him to ogle more over Nishinoya. He decides to blame the loss of the routine for the fact that his resolve feels like it’s crumpling. For god’s sake, he’s standing in Nishinoya’s house. Like it’s casual. The thought makes him dizzy. 

If Nishinoya has any idea of his internal struggle, he doesn’t let on. He simply rolls his eyes at Asahi and pushes past him to head out the door again. 

Again the car ride is short. Asahi asks Nishinoya about classes in a desperate attempt to alleviate the silence, but Nishinoya balks and scrunches his nose. 

“It’s the weekend, dude! No way am I thinking about school.” Asahi decides not to bring up the fact that he knows how much homework they should both be doing. 

“Ask me something interesting,” he says instead. Asahi bristles at the request. Jesus, whatever he can think of will not be interesting enough to Nishinoya, that’s for sure. Immediately a certain question springs to mind, but no, he can’t ask that specific question. 

“Um,” he says dumbly. 

“Okay great, I’ll ask you one then.” Oh boy. “Are you glad you moved here?” 

Asahi considers this. People ask him that question a lot; they always want to know how he’s liking his new town, if he’s settling in okay, if he’s making any friends. Those people always want him to answer ‘yes, of course’. Nishinoya’s intensity gives him pause to think about his actual answer. 

“Yeah, actually,” he finally lets out. The more he thinks about it, the more he realizes it’s true. Nishinoya’s eyes are fixed on the road, but his head is cocked just so in a way that lets Asahi know he’s paying attention. “I um, I think everyone here is really cool. I don’t always get along with this many people when I move.” He pauses. “I feel like I have real friends here.” 

“You mean me,” he grins shamelessly. Asahi nearly chokes on his own spit. “We’re here!” Nishinoya singsongs. 

“Where is ‘here’, exactly?” Asahi gulps. 

“My gym,” Nishinoya smiles as he gets out of the car and gives Asahi a once-over. “Try not to look so scared for once.”


	4. i was throwing sugar to make it worse

This proves to be harder than Asahi expected when he’s immediately met at the door with a face-full of a huge man squashing him and Nishinoya into a tight embrace. 

“Bokuto, you’re going to squeeze my guts out,” Nishinoya squawks as he wriggles himself free from his grasp. When he finally lets go, Asahi sees the man is about his age and build, but with much thicker muscles and silver hair. He looks past Bokuto, who turns back to chatter with Nishinoya, and takes in the huge gymnasium. There are mats covering the large open concept floor and bars of varying sizes on the outside of the open space. Asahi doesn’t recognize all the types of equipment, but he can tell it’s a gymnast training center. It’s empty save himself, Nishinoya, Bokuto, and another boy watching Bokuto closely from the sidelines. 

“Hey Akaashi, look! Nishinoya says that’s Asahi.” Bokuto points back to where Asahi stands in the doorway and he awkwardly raises his hand in a small wave. 

“Hello,” Akaashi deadpans. 

“Hey hey hey!” Bokuto yells, almost as if trying to create enough energy for everyone in the room. Nishinoya turns back to Asahi and chuckles. “This is Bokuto and Akaashi, my training buddies I used to go to school with.”

“You here to stunt, Noya?” Bokuto says excitedly. He turns to his indifferent friend. “Hey Akaashi, do you think I could throw you farther than Asahi could throw Noya? We should try.” 

Asahi makes a sound like a squeak. “Um.”

“Well, I said I needed your help,” Nishinoya says nonchalantly. Asahi has spent enough time with him to know the glint in his eyes means he’s planning something. Lord help me, he thinks. 

Nishinoya goes through some warmups, chatting with Bokuto and Akaashi excitedly. From what Asahi gathers, they’re old friends, but they don’t see each other much. Bokuto occasionally points a question at him, which Asahi appreciates even if he’s somewhat unnerved by his overenthusiastic nature. Asahi does his best to stretch out and prepare his muscles along with them. The aches seem to be constant at this point, he barely even flinches at the tightness he’s become used to. He doesn’t even try to compete with how far the others stretch; he’s resigned to his low flexibility after so much time with Nishinoya. 

“Asahi! Come over to the mats with us so I can show you how to lift me.” Asahi swallows a gulp and obeys. 

“He’s not a cheerleader at your school?” Akaashi asks with his eyebrow quirked. 

Nishinoya scoffs. “This oaf? Please.” He shoots Asahi a look. “He plays football. He’s just super interested in what I do on the weekends.” Asahi’s face must immediately turn beet red. He starts to choke out a response and fails. 

“Awwww!” Bokuto coos at him, jumping over to slap him on the back. “Nishinoya has a little friend!”

“He’s as big as you, Bokuto.”

“Akaashi, don’t ruin the fun!”

“So we’ll start off with some easy stuff and I’ll show you the basics before we try anything too difficult.” Nishinoya ignores the other two. 

“Um, I’ve never done this before,” Asahi stammers. He’s seen the cheerleaders drop each other before at their practice. “I don’t know if I can do it without- I mean, I don’t want to do it wrong.” 

“Of course not. That’s why I’m showing you,” Nishinoya rolls his eyes and places a hand on his shoulder. “I trust you.” 

I trust you. 

Asahi wants him to say it again. Nishinoya looks at him for a second with his lips turned up just slightly. Asahi tries not to let himself think that it’s a genuine smile and not just a smirk. He opens his mouth and then slams it shut. He nods weakly as Nishinoya starts to demonstrate how he wants Asahi to stand, move, and hold. Asahi tries not to think at all when Nishinoya moves his body in a certain way, or when he grabs Asahi’s hands to show him how to properly do a hold. Bokuto and Akaashi chime in every so often to give him pointers too, causing his head to swim with all the information. I just can’t drop Nishinoya, he thinks. Finally, NIshinoya stops and stands with his hands on his hips, seemingly satisfied with his teaching job.

“Ready to try?” 

“I guess,” Asahi tries not to sound as hesitant as he feels. 

“Alright, so I know I said we should start simple, but I don’t really want to.” If Nishinoya notices how Asahi panics, he doesn’t let on. “Lets go straight for a kewpie.” 

“A what?” Asahi says miserably. 

“You’ll throw me up and hold me with your arms extended while I stand on your hands. The hold I showed you is like this.” Nishinoya demonstrates again. “So first, you grab my waist and help me jump up and then you move your hold to my feet. Wait, I’ll have Bokuto hold Akaashi to show you.”

Bokuto and Akaashi demonstrate the hold, which only decreases Asahi’s confidence that he can replicate the move. His eyes feel as wide as saucers when he turns to look back at Nishinoya. 

“You’ll be fine!”

“It’s not me that I’m worried about,” Asahi grumbles, his cheeks tinging pink. 

Nishinoya ignores him and positions himself in front of Asahi, grabbing his hands to place firmly on his waist. Asahi’s brain goes numb at the action. Nishinoya doesn’t fidget or move, but his body is taut with apprehension. Asahi’s hands look giant on his slim frame. Do NOT think about how your hands look on him right now, he scolds himself. 

“- and then you bend your knees just a little on the count and we’ll give it a go,” Asahi doesn’t mention how he only heard half of whatever Nishinoya said to him. Asahi feels Nishinoya take a breath before he starts a count. Asahi follows Nishonya’s movements, putting all of his strength into lifting at the right time. Before he even realizes what’s happened, he feels his body tensing under the weight above him. 

“Hold on there, man bun!” Nishinoya rasps. Asahi can hear Nishinoya’s excitement and is causes a smile to spread across his face. He puts all of his attention on holding Nishinoya, who makes it extremely easy by staying tensed and steady. His chest tightens with pride, like he’s holding the most important thing in the world without letting it drop. 

“Did’ya see that, Akaashi?” Bokuto chirps from behind them. 

After getting over the initial excitement of successfully lifting Nishinoya, Asahi’s brain skids to a halt. 

“Um, Nishinoya?” He looks down from his perch with a wide grin across his face. “Yeah?” 

“What now?”

“Now you catch me.” 

-

Asahi watches from the stands as Nishinoya swings on the high bars. He’s panting from their stunting and finds himself marveling yet again at the never-ending stamina Nishinoya seems to have. He barely notices when Akaashi and Bokuto move to sit near him. Even Bokuto is quiet for a minute while trying to catch his breath. Akaashi seems unphased but content to take a rest. 

“Noya’s really gotten better, huh,” Bokuto says through labored breaths. “Man, I wish he had someone who could base for him on their team. He’s such a good flyer!” Asahi nods his agreement. From what little he knows about cheerleading, the smaller people normally are the ‘flyer’, and most of the rest of their team are girls. “He can even make your inexperienced ass look good!” 

“You should just be grateful he doesn’t compete in gymnastics anymore,” Akaashi chimes in impassively. “Or he might be good enough to take you on in tumbling.” He has that tone about him that makes it hard for Asahi to tell if he’s trying to get a rise out of Bokuto or not. 

“Come on, Akaashi!” Bokuto whines at the comment. “You know I’m the best!” 

Asahi tears his eyes away from Nishinoya’s routine to look at the pair. “Why doesn’t he? He’s obviously really good.” Bokuto and Akaashi give Asahi a weird look and share a glance. 

“He hasn’t said anything about it to you?” 

Asahi knits his eyebrows together in confusion. “No. Not really about anything other than cheerleading at our school.” Asahi considers this and spits out the next bit before he can stop himself. “He helped me out once. He helped give me courage to keep playing football. Do you guys think he needs that to keep doing gymnastics?” It’s hard for Asahi to imagine that he could give Nishinoya encouragement in anything, or that he would even need it. 

“We don’t really push it with him,” Akaashi says elusively. Asahi’s interest peaks. 

Bokuto looks nervously at Akaashi, almost like he’s asking for permission. Akaashi’s expression doesn’t change, but Bokuto seems to take that as a ‘go ahead’ and opens his mouth. “Nishinoya mentioned that we used to go to school together, right?” Asahi nods. “Well, he’s younger than us, and we didn’t know him very well then, but he came to this same gym that we did, so we knew of him. Anyway, when we were younger, Nishinoya was like, stupid good at gymnastics and tumbling. He got a ton of attention for it because he won a lot of competitions. He was on TV and stuff a lot a few years back, got really big on YouTube.” 

Bokuto’s excitement fizzles out and he pauses, watching Asahi. Asahi leans in, loving hearing about Nishinoya’s accomplishments.

“But, you know, it wasn’t all good apparently. He did a bunch of interviews and stuff and… well, there were always questions about if any of the other girl gymnasts caught his eye. They were trying to be cheeky, I guess. One time an interviewer was pressing it harder than usual after Nishinoya won a competition. Nishinoya’s answer was something like, ‘they’re all great, but there’s someone else I like’. He was pretty young and must’ve not realized they were baiting him or something, I don’t know. But they kept asking him who is she, who is she! And then, famously he said, ‘oh, it’s just a boy at my gym.’ I mean, you know how he is. Of course, that got popular on YouTube and everyone who followed Noya’s career was talking about it.” 

Asahi stares dumbly at Bokuto as he continues to explain. He rethinks all the moments when he touched Nishinoya with no response. All the times Nishinoya passed him in the hallways like it didn’t make his heart clench. Asahi had assumed he was straight. Knowing he’s into men and still doesn’t like him is worse, somehow. He vaguely realizes Bokuto’s voice is low now, like he’s saying something important, and Asahi tries to tune back in. 

“But after that interview, people at school started to… they started to…” Bokuto trails off. Asahi feels his heart plummet into his stomach. 

“Not everyone treated him kindly once they found out.” Akaashi says. 

Bokuto looks wholly upset, his eyes wide and watery. “We didn’t even know. We didn’t know that was why he stopped coming to practices and meets. He looked so sad at school sometimes. I mean, I know Noya’s a small dude, but he never really looks small.” He sounds miserable. 

Akaashi puts his hand on Bokuto’s shoulder to quiet him down. “Some people were supportive. But he started to get in fights at school and having a harder time. The bullying was bad enough, but the judges in gymnastics can be difficult about things like that when it impacts a person’s image.”

“That’s not fair,” Asahi says, anger bubbling up in his chest. He can’t even let himself think about what the kids did to Nishinoya. His mind reels with the thought of someone making Nishinoya upset enough to quit. 

“No, it’s not,” Askaashi agrees. “He took it pretty bad from the people at his school. I don’t know the details of it all, but it was enough that he switched out of our school. We saw him around here a few times with some other kid before he stopped coming all together.”

“Tanaka,” Bokuto supplies, still hanging his head low. 

“Ah yes, Tanaka. Nishinoya started coming again but we haven’t seen Tanaka in a while, so we were surprised when we saw him bring you in. Anyway, that’s why we leave well enough alone.” He’s silent for a moment. “He’s more fragile than he looks. It’s unsettling.”

Asahi stares forward. Nishinoya hops down off the bars, sticking the landing, and beams over at Asahi devilishly. Asahi’s heart skips in his chest and he clenches his fists at his side. A feeling starts to rise up in his chest, threatening to boil over before he can shove it down. Oh. He’s suddenly overwhelmed with the urge to protect Nishinoya; to go over to him and hug him so tightly to his chest that no one else could even try to hurt him. The feeling weighs on him unfamiliarly. He feels it all so strongly that tears start to burn his eyes. 

“Dude, are you pining right now?” Bokuto’s mood has completely shifted and his eyes glisten mischievously. 

Asahi jumps nearly a foot in the air. “Uh, no, you’ve misunderstood, that’s not it –”

“Sure,” Bokuto says, wiggling his eyebrows. 

Asahi tries to ignore him and looks back at Nishinoya. ‘He’s more fragile than he looks.’ Maybe, but he’s stronger than he looks too. 

By the time they leave the gym, Asahi is wet with sweat and tired to his very bones. Nishinoya just smiles like a kid leaving a candy store with all his favorite treats, even after they’ve trained past sunset. Asahi likes Bokuto and Akaashi, even if the former is a bit much. Tired as he is, Asahi admits to himself that he wouldn’t be opposed to coming around the gym more often with Nishinoya. He mentions this to him as they throw their belongs in the backseat of Nishinoya’s car. 

“Good thing you didn’t say that around Bokuto or he would have tried to have you here bright and early tomorrow.” 

“Well that’s not really that different from my usual,” Asahi jokes lightheartedly. Nishinoya tilts his head back and forth as if to say, ‘true enough’. Asahi climbs into Nishinoya’s car with a sigh and all but melts into the interior. 

“You can push the seat back if you want, Daddy Long Legs.” 

“The drive isn’t that far,” Asahi hums. 

“Yeah, speaking of, you can stay over at my house if you want,” Nishinoya says. “I know you bike but it’s getting pretty late.”

Whatever chipmunk is running on the wheel that makes Asahi’s brain function flies off and hits the walls of his skull. He looks over at Nishionya and can’t form a single thought. Nishonya looks over at him before turning to lean over his seat to back the car out of the parking lot, and that does not help his situation at all. 

“You look about ready to pass away anyhow, I’m not really sure I want to find you unconscious on the side of the road tomorrow if send you home on a bike.” 

“I wouldn’t pass out.”

“Its like, 10 at night and we’ve been training all day. Don’t sweat it, man.” 

“Is that allowed?”

“I mean, my parents won’t be home until later probably, but they won’t mind.” Asahi realizes that Nishinoya couldn’t have known that what he meant was it shouldn’t be allowed. Not according to his rules of acting like the two of them are just friends who work out together. Nishinoya couldn’t know that he means it feels criminal to get to spend intimate time with him. 

“And you seem like you would know a good recipe for cookies.”

“Huh?”

“Just a vibe I get.” Nishinoya’s lips quirk upwards in the beginnings of the soft smile that makes Asahi’s heart take flight in his chest. “And I’m dying for some cookie dough.” 

Well, Asahi does have a cookie recipe memorized. 

-

“I so called this!” Nishinoya yells after ushering Asahi into his kitchen under the guise of forcing him to bake. Asahi just sighs and recites ingredients for Nishinoya to pull out of the cabinet, who obediently sets everything onto the counter. 

“Yeah, yeah.” He bends over the stove to preheat the oven. 

Asahi suddenly feels Nishonya standing behind him, so close that if he took a step backward, they would be pressed together. He stays deathly still, but the thoughts force themselves into his head anyway. A cloth apron falls down over his front, and then Nishinoya’s warmth is gone. 

“I thought you should look the part.” Asahi turns around to face Nishinoya wide eyes, who quirks his chin up slightly. All Asahi does is stare back and marvel at the openness of his gaze. The gaze he wants trained on him all the time. 

The moment is suffocating.

“I don’t look like a baker?” Asahi’s voice sounds breathless even to him. 

“Maybe not to someone who doesn’t know you’re a huge softy.” 

Asahi’s hands twitch at his sides. Nishinoya’s eyes flicker and he turns back around to face the pantry, grabbing a baking pan off the shelf. He places his hands on his hips impatiently and gestures at the empty bowl as if to say, ‘get to work’. A smile creeps its way onto his face. I really will do anything you ask, he thinks. 

While they bake, Asahi notices. He notices that while they stir ingredients, Nishinoya is careful not to let their hands bump. Nishinoya stands far enough away that their shoulders don’t brush. When Asahi reaches over, he moves out of the way like he might get burned. He laughs and jokes and is his usual rambunctious self, but he’s careful too. It’s nothing different from the usual. It feels to Asahi like every time they have a moment that pulls his heart closer there’s ten more to push it away. 

He might be an idiot for it, but he doesn’t really care. 

“Don’t just mash it,” he scolds Nishinoya as the batter starts to get thicker. 

“It’s not suppose to look like this! It’s not my fault,” he huffs loudly. 

“Yes it is,” Asahi defends. “This is how drop batter looks. When was the last time you made cookies from scratch? What do you mean it’s not suppose to look like this?” He forces the beaters out of Nishinoya’s hands to take over the stirring of the thick batter. “Do you want fluffy cookies or don’t you?”

“I haven’t ever made cookies from scratch.” 

“What?!” Asahi turns to him in disbelief. “You’ve never made cookies? No, don’t tell me, have you ever baked anything before?” Nothing. 

“Your silence is deafening.” 

“No, okay? I haven’t!”

“No wonder you were trying to butcher our poor dough. It all makes perfect sense now. Hand me the chocolate chips.” 

“You’re bossy in the kitchen.” 

“And you’re helpless,” Asahi grins. He’s not sure what’s gotten into him; maybe all this time with the boy he likes is going to his head. Jesus. Asahi swats Nishinoya’s hand away from the chocolate chips and continues to stir. 

“Okay, now we have to lay them out to bake them.” 

“Dude,” Nishinoya says dramatically, throwing a hand over his chest. “We are so not baking those until I consume and least half of the cookie dough raw.”

Asahi crinkles his nose. “That will make your stomach hurt.” 

“Now you sound like Suga,” Nishinoya groans. He pulls out a drawer and grabs a spoon, completely ignoring Asahi, and takes the biggest scoop possible out of the bowl. 

Asahi just watches him take a bite and waits for his reaction.

“This is,” he swallows, “better than landing a roundoff back handspring double back tuck.” 

Asahi looks at him dumbly.

“Okay, maybe not better, but pretty damn good.” 

“Well I’m going to start putting them on the sheet so we have at least some cookies to eat.” He feigns a horrified look as Nishinoya shovels another spoonful into his mouth. “You’re a monster, Nishinoya.”

Nishinoya gives him a strange look that he can’t place. For a moment, he looks distracted as he continues to lick the spoon he’s holding. Asahi decides to leave it alone and starts rolling the dough between his hands to put on the sheet. He slips the first batch into the oven and pulls a barstool over closer so he can watch the cookies in the oven. Nishinoya ignores him and pushes himself onto the counter with the bowl of cookie dough in his lap. Asahi realizes how stupid he must look fondly watching the menacing boy on the counter scarfing down raw cookie dough like an animal, but he doesn’t really mind. He allows it of himself because he’s sure that Nishinoya won’t notice. 

They stay that way for a while, Asahi only moving to take out the batch of cookies and reload the oven. 

Nishinoya finally puts his spoon down to grabs two fresh cookies and moves to sit nearer to Asahi, still on the counter. It gives him a slight height advantage that Asahi isn’t used to. Nishinoya reaches out to hand Asahi one of the cookies. 

“So now you’re sharing?”

“Don’t push me,” Nishinoya shoves his shoulder lightly and places the cookie in his hand. 

“You’re bad for my health.”

Nishinoya eats his cookie slowly before tilting his head down to stare at Asahi. He has that open expression on his face again, like he’d tell Asahi anything. 

“I could say the same about you, you know,” he says quietly. 

Asahi holds his gaze. His hands twitch again at his sides with the urge to reach out. He’s so lost in the warmth of Nishinoya’s eyes that he jumps when Nishinoya’s hand touches his face. His fingertips are warm from holding the cookie, so Asahi inhales sharply when his cold palm brushes against his cheek. Nishinoya brushes the loose hairs wisping around his face to the side, tugging on them slightly. 

“Ask me again.” 

Asahi doesn’t have to ask what he means. Nishinoya’s eyes are cloudy but focused, his mouth is relaxed, and his lips are parted slightly. He’s already noticing this by the time he realizes he probably shouldn’t be staring at Nishinoya’s lips. 

“Nishinoya,” Asahi starts, mustering all the courage he can, “will you do my hair for me?”

“Turn around.”

Asahi does. He can feel Nishinoya pull the band out of his hair carefully, letting all the hair fall messily around his shoulders. Nishinoya combs his fingers through his hair and Asahi bites back a sigh. He lets his neck go limp and he leans into Nishinoya’s touch while he rakes his fingers through the tangles. Tension releases from his shoulders and he bends his head back farther, nearly into Nishinoya’s lap. Slowly, Nishinoya starts to pull the strands together into a bun near the base of his neck. Nishinoya toys with the small, sensitive hairs there, sending a shiver down Asahi’s spine. This time he does sigh, a low sound that escapes before he can stop it. Nishinoya continues to swoop his hair around the tie until Asahi can feel it pulled pleasantly tight and secure. Nishinoya puts his hands on either side of Asahi’s head to pull down fly aways, taming them by twisting them into the rest of his hair. Asahi realizes that Nishinoya must be done, but he doesn’t pull away. Nishinoya trails his fingers softly down his head, from his temple to behind his ear to his neck. Asahi leans his head back farther, experimentally, but Nishinoya doesn’t move away. Asahi lets his head fall all the way back into Nishinoya’s lap, resting it there with his eyes closed. Nishinoya’s fingers trace from his neck to his face, mapping out his features tentatively. 

Asahi smells smoke a second before the fire alarm starts blaring at full volume. His eyes snap open and he’s met with the sight of Nishinoya leaning over him. He’s already in the motion of sitting up when he realizes how close his face is to Nishinoya’s, just as he smacks their foreheads together. 

“Ow, shit,” Nishinoya says, scrambling back. 

“Sorry, Nishinoya!” Asahi shouts. Why had Nishinoya been so close to his face? He turns his head from side to side in a haze, thoughts still clouded, and realizes the oven is spewing smoke. 

“Shit!” He yells loudly, scrambling to get off the stool. He flings the oven door down and, to his horror, sees the smoke rising from a small flame coming up from the cookies. “Oh shit!” He says again, fumbling for the oven mitt. He reaches in and grabs the pan, but pulls too quickly, causing the cookies to slide off the pan. One of them falls to the bottom of the oven, still on fire. Asahi throws the pan onto the counter and reaches back in for the one he missed. 

“No, don’t touch that!” Nishinoya shouts, too late for Asahi to realize his mistake. The flame catches onto the mitt on Asahi’s hand and he lets out a yelp as he tries to pull it off. He manages to get the mitt off and thrown into the sink before turning back to the counter. The cookies are on fire, and Asahi sees Nishinoya throwing a white substance on the stove in an attempt to get the flames to die down. 

“What are you doing?” Asahi yells, turning back to the sink to get water.

“You can’t put water on a kitchen fire, Asahi!”

“What? It’s not a grease fire! Move,” Asahi puts his arm out to push him back away from the flames and throws a pitcher of water onto the cookies. The fire instantly recedes to a smoking mess, leaving both boys heaving and skeptically watching the char in front of them. Asahi turns to look at Nishinoya; his eyes are wide and his mouth is open in surprise. He’s holding the package of sugar they had been using earlier. It’s so ridiculous that Asahi starts to giggle. 

“Did you really think that sugar would put the fire out?”

“No, I was throwing sugar to make it worse,” Nishinoya fires back. Then he looks down at his hands and starts laughing along with Asahi. 

“Nishinoya,” Asahi says between fits of laughter, “I think you have to throw salt, not sugar.” This only makes both of them laugh harder. The smoke alarm is going off in the background still, which for some reason makes Asahi laugh harder. He sits down on the ground clutching his stomach, and Nishinoya follows suit. 

“Fuck,” Nishinoya finally says once he catches his breath, “we have to clean this shit up before my parents get back.” 

Asahi gets up to fan the smoke out of the room, which sends Nishinoya back into a fit of laughter. They go about chaotically disbanding the smoke for the next hour, doing an all around terrible job of fixing the situation. 

“Well that’s just about enough excitement for me,” Nishinoya groans after they stare down the smoke detector long enough to be sure it won’t set off again. They’re collapsed side by side on the ground of the kitchen with the pan of not burnt cookies sitting between them. “Plus I think if I eat one more cookie I’ll throw it all up, and that’d be a damn shame.”

Asahi starts to laugh again but ends up yawning instead. 

“I’ll go set out the cot in my room.” He glances over his shoulder at the abandoned dishes in the sink. “Then I can take care of that.”

“No, I’ll help, I don’t mind.” Asahi heaves himself off the tile floor and heads over to start washing the dishes as Nishinoya disappears into his bedroom. Asahi scrunches his nose at the strong smell of charred wax paper in the kitchen. 

“I’ll open the windows,” Nishinoya says at the moment that Asahi starts to think it might be a good idea to air the place out. Both of them are tired and uncomfortably full, but the silence is a happy one as they wash all the dishes and do their best to air out the smell. 

Nishinoya heads to his room first, turning the lights off and beckoning for Asahi to follow. Nishinoya falls straight onto his bed and shivers. “I get so damn cold at night.” 

Without thinking, Asahi pulls his sweatshirt over his head and throws it to Nishinoya. He’s too tired to stop himself from thinking of Nishinoya’s cold morning hands. 

“The hell?” Nishinoya questions. His voice doesn’t have a drop of his usual confident air about it. He doesn’t make any motion to throw the shirt back, though. He holds it in his hands like he’s unsure of what to do next. 

“I sleep hot,” Asahi says simply, laying back down. After a moment, he hears Nishinoya’s bed creaking as he moves to sit up and pull the shirt over his head. Asahi wishes he could see if Nishinoya is surprised by this. He likes when he manages to catch him off guard. 

After Nishinoya lays back down, Asahi lies in the dark silence and stares and the ceiling. He’s tired, of course, it’s well into the early hours of the morning, but his brain is buzzing. His heart feels like fire in his chest. He has the strangest feeling in his fingertips, like if he could just touch Nishinoya everything would be quiet in his mind. Like the only thing that could stop the stirring in his chest is physical contact. If I could just touch his hand, I could go to sleep. It’s impossible to close his eyes. 

“You can call me Yuu, if you want to,” Nishinoya whispers. Asahi’s heartrate quickens. Everyone calls him Nishinoya or Noya. “It... it sounds strange to me when you always call me Nishinoya.” There’s something vulnerable in the way he says it, like that feeling is a secret he’s been holding onto. 

“Yuu,” Asahi breathes lowly, like it’s a gift. “Goodnight, Yuu.” 

-

“Wake up already, you giant bear,” a voice groans. Asahi frowns without opening his eyes and curls up tighter. He lets out a happy hum when he’s snuggled in comfortably. 

“This is not what I asked for,” the voice croaks. Asahi wishes the voice would shut up; it’s been ages since he slept in without his ringer blaring in his face at ungodly hours in the morning. 

“Shu’up,” he grumbles, his voice thick with sleep and barely audible, even to his own ears. He hears a “tsk” from and feels the covers shifting around him. 

“Alright, I tried to be nice.” Wait. Asahi knows that tone. His eyes snap open just in time to see Nishinoya, clutched haphazardly in Asahi’s arms, curling his fingers back in an attempt to flick Asahi’s forehead. 

Asahi springs backwards with a yelp so quickly that he smacks his back into the wall. Nishinoya props himself up on his arm and wiggles an eyebrow at him. “Not who you were expecting?” 

Asahi’s heartbeat thunders in his ears as his whole face turns red. He had been cuddling Nishinoya like a freaking stuffed animal. He remembers very clearly going to sleep alone, thinking of all the ways he’d like to call Nishinoya by his given name. “How,” he tries, but the rest dies in his throat. How did we end up sleeping together?? 

“Too bad, it was almost nice to have you as my personal heater,” Nishinoya teases. He cocks his head and adds, “well, before you started to literally crush me. Have you been lifting, bro? Lay off the protein powder or something, jeez.” Nishinoya’s tone is casual and joking, but Asahi gets the feeling it’s forced. Does he know? Asahi wonders in a panic. 

“Don’t you have a bed,” Asahi chokes out, his voice a few octaves too high. 

Nishinoya throws on his best smirk. “I fall out of bed sometimes.” Lie. Asahi must be giving him a disbelieving look because he tries again, “you looked uncomfortable on the floor, so I asked if you wanted to switch. I tried to get you to move, but um,” Asahi’s eyes widen. “Yeah.” Nishinoya is blushing. Asahi didn’t even know he was capable of blushing. He just stares; he couldn’t press him for more answers even if he wanted to. He’s still wearing Asahi’s sweatshirt. Lord help him. Thoughts threaten to remind him he had just been sleeping with Nishinoya curled into him; he shakes his head. Nishinoya looks like he doesn’t know what to say either. He’s still laying on his side watching Asahi, arms resting too stiffly in front of him. It reminds him of the day at the bleachers when Nishinoya seemed like he was getting ready for something.

Is he scared of me? 

The thought makes Asahi knit is eyebrows together. His mind tugs at the memory of what Bokuto and Akaashi told him yesterday. Well, shit. That won’t do. Suddenly his mind is screaming at him to tell Nishinoya everything. How much he wants to hold him up for stunts just so he’ll see his smile, how much he wants to run with him every single morning and lend him his sweatshirt every time, how much he doesn’t even hate being sore every day if it means he gets to spend another second at his side, and mostly how much he wants to curl back up with him and put his arms around him like he’s the one who can protect Nishinoya. He wants to tell him that he doesn’t need to be worried anymore. 

But he can’t say those things. That would be selfish of him, especially when he knows how Nishonya feels. He has to calm the waters instead of thinking about how to create a hurricane. 

“Yeah, I sleep like the dead,” he lets out a chuckle. “Even if you tried to wake me up, I wouldn’t know you from my shoe from my great grandma.” Lies lies lies. Sheepishly, he adds, “sorry if I broke anything.” 

Emotion flits across Nishinoya’s face before the tension drops out of his shoulders and he flops back down onto his back. “Oh please,” he huffs. “It’s gonna take more than your fat ass to break me.” It seems like the moment has passed. 

“If I’m fat, take it up with my personal trainer,” Asahi jokes, scooting away from the wall. 

“You better watch what you wish for,” Nishinoya threatens. 

“You know, it’s a lot harder to be scared of you when you have bed head.” When you look so cute it’s physically painful not to give you a hug. 

Nishinoya’s phone dings from next to the bed, and he hops up to go check it. “My dad made pancakes,” he says. Asahi instantly feels guilty about the small fire they started last night. He winces a little at mental image of Nishinoya’s parents getting home and wondering why their house smells like burnt chocolate. Asahi hopes for the hundredth time that they did a good enough job cleaning up. He thoughts are silenced by Nishinoya reaching to pull the sweatshirt off himself. He throws it over to Asahi and slips one of his own over his head. “Guess they made it home this morning after all. Do you want breakfast? Then I can take you back to the school.” 

“What, no running?” 

“You’re getting a little too bold for my liking,” Nishinoya rasps. “We can work out later tonight so you can go home and shower.” Asahi’s eyes widen when he realizes he probably smells like, well, a nasty teenage boy. 

Asahi follows Nishinoya into the kitchen and is immediately hit with the smell of breakfast full-force like a train. His stomach lets out a low grumble. 

Nishinoya gives him a mocking look. “You really are a bear, aren’t you?”

Asahi grins apologetically. Nishinoya’s parents greet them from the kitchen area and hand them plates of breakfast before setting up their own. Asahi sends up a prayer that they cleaned up the mess from the night before enough that they can’t smell the smoke. 

“Sorry we got in so late,” his dad says. “Nice to meet you, Asahi!” 

“Nice to meet you too, sir,” Asahi says nervously. Both his parents seem nice, but Asahi’s stomach is in knots anyway. “I’m grateful to you for letting me stay the night and for breakfast!”

Nishinoya rolls his eyes and elbows him in the side. “Give it a rest.”

Nishinoya’s mom laughs. “He’s just being polite, Yuu. Take notes,” she looks over at Asahi. “I’m Momo.”

“Nice to meet you ma’am!” 

They eat in happy silence for a while, Asahi gulping down pancakes at an inhuman speed. Nishinoya gives him a look but for the most part is doing the same. Asahi wonders if Nishonya has any siblings. He doesn’t seem like the only child type, but no one else is roaming around either. He makes a mental note to ask about it later. 

“Were you comfortable last night?” 

“Very,” Asahi answers genuinely between bites. Nishinoya tenses up next to him. He hopes his answer wasn’t too obvious. Yes, ma’am, it was very comfortable for me to sleep with your son. He takes another huge bite of his food to keep from saying anything else. 

“I’m glad,” Nishinoya’s dad says evenly. He pauses. “But listen, Yuu, we’d be more comfortable if your boyfriend only stayed the night when we were here.”

Asahi and Nishinoya’s heads snap up at the same time.

“He’s not my boyfriend!” Nishinoya growls, his tone sharp. Asahi’s chest pangs. “It’s not like that.” Asahi drops his fork and stares at his plate. 

It’s not like he didn’t already know that. Don’t be obvious, he chants at himself in his head. He already knew that. Why does it still hurt so much to hear? His stomach churns uncomfortably and he feels a prick behind his eyes. So few words should not have the power to make him feel so sick. 

“Okay,” his mother says slowly, looking back and forth between Asahi and Nishinoya. 

“It’s not like that,” Nishinoya says again, this time sounding more panicked than angry. 

“Sorry if I misread the situation. We still love to have you, Asahi,” his father says. His parents give each other a look, but Asahi doesn’t pay them any mind. He sits through the rest of the meal in silence.


	5. is this the face of a killer?

Asahi isn’t sure if he’s avoiding Nishinoya or if Nishinoya is avoiding him. Classes are starting to pick up and practice games are starting before the regular season begins, so coming up with excuses to miss extra practice isn’t hard. The first time he says he won’t be able to make it to a workout makes him feel so guilty he almost takes it back immediately. Each time after that doesn’t really get easier, either. Asahi hates doing it, but he’s not sure he can face Nishinoya yet. Yet, he keeps telling himself. Eventually he plans to stop moping about it, just not quite yet. 

Ironically, he starts to do better in practice. His extra work outs are paying off and he’s able to keep up with most of the play. He even ends up on the starting line-up for a few of their practice games against smaller schools outside their district. Cheerleaders don’t go to the practice matches, which Asahi is grateful for. He’s still not able to stop himself from looking to find Nishinoya in the crowd on the sidelines after every play. He manages to hold his own in the games, and even makes some good runs and plays. If there’s one thing that helps take his mind off all his personal drama, it’s the drama with the team. As the practice games fizzle out, inevitably meaning that actual games will be just around the corner, tensions start to run high. 

The problem is the quarter backs. Asahi knows Kageyama is a gifted player. When he’s on the field, plays happen like magic. The other quarterback, who Asahi has since learned is Oikawa, makes more practical plays that bring the whole team into one moment. Both of the styles of play dominate the field in different ways, creating tension for everyone as they fight for the spot of starter. With those two warring for such a team-leader role, the small fires between the two are starting to catch. Asahi knows that privately, Daichi is rooting for Kageyama, even if he doesn’t say it. Some other players on the team make their preferences obvious, like Hinata. It’s a frequent occurrence for Hinata to outright try to fight Oikawa over his beef with Kageyama. 

“Doesn’t he know that Oikawa is a great player too?” Asahi wonders one day after such an incident. He wishes nobody would fight with each other, though he supposes he’s not one to talk at the moment. 

“He does,” Suga starts slowly. “He respects Oikawa a lot, actually. Kageyama learned a lot from Oikawa back in our kid team days. Hinata knows that.” 

“He starts a lot of fights,” Asahi continues skeptically. Come to think of it, he fights with Kageyama more than anyone, but he seems like he actually means it when he gets angry at Oikawa. 

“Yeah, well, he’s biased.” 

“Because him and Kageyama are friends?”

Suga makes a face and doesn’t respond right away, like he’s thinking. “You’ve seen them play together. Hinata is good, but he’s the best when Kageyama is throwing to him. They’re both great, but they’re also sort of a package deal, I guess.” 

Asahi just nods. They make a powerful combination with their plays. If there’s one strange thing about their team, it’s how everyone works together. He’s noticed more than a few interesting dynamics in their group. They have a strong offense with Hinata and Kageyama, but they need more dependable scorers. Asahi always has to thump his own forehead and remind himself that’s his job. Kuroo is pretty good, but he seems to have weird issues with Daichi. Asahi shudders at the thought of standing off against his angry friend. When they do score, their kicker always makes the extra point. Kenma is small and always looks uninterested in everything; Asahi is privately jealous of how easily he slacks off at practice but still pulls such dependable results. 

“Kenma,” Kuroo will singsong on the rare occasion that kickers and the rest of the team run the same drills. “Keep up, would you?”

In response Kenma will shoot Kuroo a look that could kill a man. Like he said, weird dynamics. 

Their defense, however, is unbeatable. He had his doubts about the skinny blonde boy, Tsukishima, but he’s proven wrong every time the boy makes a block before Asahi can blink. From what Asahi can tell, he’s able to outwit his opponents fairly easily. He’s another one that Hinata seems to fight a lot; it’s always over something he says to Kageyama that Ashai decides to stay all the way out of. From a distance, Hinata, Kageyama, Tsukishima, and Tsukishima’s friend (Yamaguchi? He’s a freshman Asahi doesn’t see much of) look like a tight knit group. That is, until you hear them yelling and scrapping with each other. Asahi swears he hears Suga start them in sometimes during morning practices, but he won’t admit to it. The energy is chaotic and electrifying, but also on the verge of being too much so. Asahi has never played on a team like this one, and he hopes all their high-stakes plays and matchups will end up working out for them in the regular season. Overall, their team is playing at a high level, but the tension is right up there with it.

Not to mention Tanaka. It’s like the boy can smell bad blood with Nishinoya. Asahi thought they had gotten past the worst of it, but the rejection came back around full force. He’s still a strong blocker who’s a given in the current defensive line-up, but he makes it clear he’s not doing Asahi any favors. Asahi tries to stay on his good side, but it doesn’t really change anything. So when Asahi finds himself changing quickly to get the hell out of the locker room before it’s just him and Tanaka and the awkward void, he’s surprised that Tanaka speaks to him. 

“Wait, Asahi,” he says it like it’s acid burning his throat. 

“Um, okay,” Asahi hopes that Tanaka can’t see that his knees are one second from giving out. Tanaka looks like he’d honestly rather drink bleach than be alone in the locker room with Asahi, but he watches behind his shoulder for the last other person to leave before turning back to face him anyway.

“Alright, tell me what’s up with Noya.” 

Asahi’s blood runs cold. “Nothing,” he squeaks. 

“I thought you were cool, dude,” Tanaka says, eyeing him. “But it is very uncool to mess with my bro like that.”

“I... yeah, I know.” Asahi lets his shoulders hang. “I feel bad about it. I’m not trying to mess with him though, I swear! I just, um, I don’t know.” Asahi’s face burns. “Did he tell you what happened?” Did he tell you I tried to flirt with him and then nearly balled like a baby when he said he idea of dating me sounded awful (more or less, the playback in Asahi’s head gets worse and worse every time)? 

“Yeah,” Tanaka says. He doesn’t sound angry, just more resigned. Like he expected Asahi to do better. He’s never seen this side of Tanaka, but Asahi’s finding it harder to stomach than his usual over-the-top anger. He takes a breath and sets his jaw. “You need to stay away from him, then.” 

“Huh?”

“If you can’t respect him, stay away from him.” Tanaka says factually. “Look, I don’t know what your problem is, but you can’t act like that around him. There’s… stuff you don’t know about. If you can’t respect all of him, then stay away from him.” 

Asahi’s confusion must be evident on his face. “I do respect Nishinoya,” he says. He remembers the feeling settling in his chest; the one that wants him to stay one foot behind Nishinoya to keep him smiling forever without constantly thinking about how people will react to him. The one that makes his body move to follow Nishinoya anywhere just to hear his laugh; the worriless one where he’ll close his eyes and throw his head back with the force of it. 

“And I don’t know if I can do that.”

Tanaka’s face twists in anger. “It’s not a choice to respect his boundaries!” 

Asahi’s heart stops in his chest. Oh. His boundaries. Guilt clouds his emotions before he can think of something coherent to say. He knows he should do be doing that. Had Nishinoya thought he was disrespecting him when he leaned into his touches a little too much? When he squeezed their interactions for all they were worth? This whole time, had Nishinoya been bothered by him? 

“Listen,” Tanaka says darkly, “if you pull some shit like you did with his parents again, you’ll regret it. Stay away from him.” His tone is final. Asahi wants to argue, but the words don’t come. The thought that he could have been making Nishinoya uncomfortable enough to make Tanaka react this badly must mean he deserves it. Tanaka grabs his bag and leaves the locker room. 

Asahi sits down on a bench and folds his hands together. He lets out a sigh in an attempt to release the pressure building in his chest. Okay, he tells himself, nothing has to change. He had been avoiding Nishinoya because he was embarrassed, and he had always thought that eventually it would blow over and they would go back to being friends. In the midst of his feelings being hurt by rejection, he hadn’t considered Nishinoya’s thoughts. He assumed he wouldn’t care that he liked him, but the last thing he wanted to do was be overbearing. Asahi flicks his own head at his thoughts only moments ago about blindly following Nishinoya to the end of the earth. Real big words for someone who’s not even wanted. Okay, I can fix this, he thinks. He decides to continue his evading technique for now, until he can figure out a non-threatening way to apologize. 

‘You mean me,’ he remembers Nishinoya saying to him. Nishinoya had called them friends; he could act like friends. One sleepover didn’t have to change everything.

The problem, which Asahi actively chooses to ignore, is that for him it did change everything. 

Asahi stays in the locker room for a good while longer to be sure that Tanaka won’t be outside when he leaves. He’s definitely not ready for round two of that interaction. Finally, he pushes the door open and makes his way over to his bike outside the parking lot. 

“Asahi!” A voice calls out behind him. Then, “man, I must really scare you!” Daichi laughs behind him. Asahi had jumped at the sound of his name, but in his defense, he had been so worried about Tanaka he hadn’t realized it was only Daichi. 

“Oh, hey guys,” Asahi says after turning to see Sugawara and Daichi walking towards him. “I thought you guys went to head out a while ago.”

“We waited for you, of course!” Sugawara beams at him. Asahi immediately loses control over the tears he had barely been keeping in check. 

“Oh shit,” Daichi mumbles in a panic. 

“Did something happen?” Suga asks. 

“No,” Asahi says quickly. He’s managed to keep his feelings for Nishinoya hidden this far from them, he’s not going to spill his guts now. Well, at least not about that. “I just can’t believe that…” Saying it out loud makes him blush. He’s never had friends at school that waited around for him. The parking lot is almost empty; how long did they stay? 

“Hey, nothing sappy,” Suga jokes lightly. 

“Right,” Asahi sniffles again and wipes his eyes. They continue to flow down his cheeks anyway. “It’s just nice.”

“I said nothing sappy!” 

Daichi laughs. “It’s okay Asahi, we know you’re a giant teddy bear.” Asahi chuckles too. 

“It’s just nice to have you guys as friends.” 

This time Suga doesn’t scold him. “It’s nice to have you as a friend too, Asahi. You’re good for the soul.” Asahi smiles sloppily at him. 

“Anyway,” Daichi says, clearing his throat. “We wanted to invite you to the season kick-off party.” Asahi gives him a confused look and waits for him to continue. “Every year, the seniors throw a big party for the team two nights before the first game.” 

“Our game is this week,” Asahi says. 

“We’re aware,” Suga sasses. 

“Yeah, with everything going on with the team I had been debating if we should even do it. I mean, everyone is so on edge that it might do more harm than good.”

“I think I’ve convinced him, though,” Suga says. “I really do think it’ll help everyone loosen up, not the other way around.” 

“What does the coach say?” Asahi asks nervously. 

Suga gives him a wicked grin and Daichi shifts uncomfortably. “Why would we tell the coach about a huge illegal party, Asahi?”  
He gulps. 

“It’s not exactly, um, school approved.” Daichi says stiffly. 

“Yeah, Daichi, that’s what huge illegal party means.” 

“Suga, you really surprise me more and more every day.” Asahi manages. He’s the sweetest person Asahi has ever met, but he swears he’s starting to unearth Suga’s chaotic evil nature. Maybe he’s exaggerating again. 

“Does everyone know about this party? I mean, where will we even do it? And when?” A part of Asahi hopes he can talk them out of it. 

“We already thought of everything!”

Of course they did. 

“I live with my dad, he’s a fire fighter,” Daichi starts, “so he has to work overnight shifts. We can do it at my house, but then it has to be on his schedule. The only real problem is that’s three days before the game and not two, but I think it’ll be better for recovery anyway.” 

“Plus that means we have extra time to clean up so he never knows we were there!” 

“I talked to everyone on the team and they were keeping their week free if they knew about it. Mostly everyone can come, so that’s good news.” Daichi says to Suga. 

“Guys, that’s tonight.” 

“So we’re going to have to go get snacks and drinks, and put away all the breakables.”

“Footballs and décor do not get along, good thinking Suga.”

“That’s tonight!” Asahi yells this time. 

They both turn to look at him. “Well, yeah.” 

“Jesus, I don’t even know why I bother.” Asahi sighs. He’s not much in the mood for a party, but that doesn’t mean he wants to go home and cry in his room like he’s been doing either. “What can I do to help?”

Suga grins at him. “Well, since you asked…”

Anyway, that’s how Asahi finds himself assembling a pong table in Daichi’s living room alone on a Wednesday evening. Sugawara and Daichi had some “errands” they needed to run and left some of the set up to him. So far, he’s managed to get everything Hinata-proofed and moved some of the furniture to be more accommodating to a larger group of people. Asahi knows the whole football team is invited, and even if they don’t all come, that’s still around 50 people. The door opens just as he starts to stand the table up.

“Hey, Daichi-”

“Try again!” A voice hollers out at him. He peaks around the entry way and sees familiar black bedhead waltzing through the door, followed closely by Kenma. 

“Kuroo?” 

“Hey, Asahi,” Kuroo waves. “Kenma, don’t be rude, say hello.” Kuroo seems to be joking, but Kenma rolls his eyes anyway. 

“Hello.” He deadpans. 

Kuroo beams. “We’re here to help set up.” He drops bags onto the counter that clank together. “Well, I am. Kenma is just here.” 

Daichi did say it was hosted by the seniors, but Asahi’s not going to order Kenma to leave so he just shrugs and gestures to his work so far. “I’m mostly done setting up.” 

“Now I see why you all need me,” Kuroo purrs. “There’s absolutely no vibe happening right now.”

“You sound even more like a nerd when you say vibe like that, Kuro.” Kenma says as he situates himself in the corner and pulls out his game. 

Asahi raises his eyebrow but decides to humor him. “How so?” He’s not around Kuroo very much, and he definitely doesn’t always get along with Daichi, but he seems harmless enough. 

Kuroo stops looking offended and turns back to Asahi. “Well first, we need music. And then we can work on the rest.” 

By the time Daichi and Suga make it back to the house, Kuroo has rearranged Asahi’s hard work, finished adorning the pong table, set up other games, played every classic rock love ballad in existence (singing to Kenma the whole time, who looked annoyed, but Asahi couldn’t tell if it was at Kuroo or his game), and taken 2 shots from one of the bottles he brought. Asahi gives his best apologetic look to the two and mouths, ‘please help’. Only then does Asahi see that behind them in the doorway Oikawa and a few other seniors are following them inside, all holding various different foods and beverages. 

“Over here, guys,” Daichi says, ushering them all to a table that will have to make do for snacks, because Kuroo has already spilled shitty alcohol on it.

Sugawara shoots Asahi a look. “We thought we’d be back faster, but we had to help everyone find somewhere to park.” Asahi just nods and goes back to his assigned task of stringing cheap lights around. It’s getting darker outside and the mood is quickly shifting from setting up the party to enjoying the party with the ever-growing group, despite it only being around 8 pm. 

Asahi starts to realize how unprepared for this situation he is. He’s at a party, for crying out loud. He’s never even had alcohol. 

“You look tense,” a voice coos behind him. He jumps and drops all the lights he was holding. He yelps and scrambles to pick them up. “Well, I guess you always look tense. Lighten up, man,” Oikawa chirps. Asahi laughs nervously. It’s so strange being around all of them without the familiar setting of football. He’s sure that the walls are going to cave in around him any minute. What could Oikawa possibly want, anyway?

“Want a drink?” 

Huh?

“I made you one. Sugawara mentioned that you’d been helping set up all afternoon, so we can splitsies drinks as long as you keep doing my share of the work. Geez, labor does not agree with me.” He makes a face and holds a cup out to Asahi. “Plus I really cannot imagine you faking being old enough to buy alcohol. Ironic, you look the part, but there’s like, no way you could pull it off.” 

Asahi swirls the cup and takes an experimental sip. 

“Well? I’ve been told I’m a great bartender,” Oikawa smiles when he says this, but Asahi gets the feeling there’s another meaning to his words. 

“This tastes like,” Asahi chokes as his throat burns. “This tastes like warm coke?”

Oikawa throws his head back to laugh. “Never has anyone told me that rum and coke tastes warm. Nice.” 

“Isn’t it, like, weird to drink this early?” Asahi asks, taking another sip of his drink. 

“What do you mean?” 

Asahi blushes in discomfort. “In movies everyone always says to show up later than when you’re invited.”

“Well, duh, it’s only polite! How else would the host get drunk enough to deal with everyone?” Oikawa huffs. “You think I’m throwing a party for the Chibi and Kageyama sober?” He spits out the word ‘sober’ like he has a personal vendetta to settle with it. “Absolutely not.” Asahi decides not to mention that Oikawa made it very clear he does not intend to help throw the party at all. 

“Plus day drinking is fun,” he adds simply. “Oh shit, I think I see Iwa.” Asahi knows they’re close, so he takes that as his cue to go back to his finishing touches. “Don’t forget to find me when you want a drink, Asahi! Oh, and tell the shrimp there’s some stomach medicine in the fridge. I thought it might be easier on his stomach than the carbonated manufactured shit.”

Asahi frowns to himself. Oikawa going out of his way for Hinata? The one trying to fist fight him literally hours ago? Weird. This team is weird. 

When the underclassmen start to show up, Asahi starts to get nervous, and then he starts to drink his warm liquid at a quicker pace. His head is swimming, but there’s a pleasant feeling in his stomach that almost calms his nerves and slows his thoughts to the point he could forget why he’s anxious. Almost. He’s sitting and talking with Sugawara while Daichi greets everyone who comes in near the door. Every time someone walks in, he sends up a prayer that it’s not Tanaka. By the time the house is packed with almost everyone, Asahi lets himself hope that maybe, just maybe, Tanaka is sparing him. 

This is how Hinata manages to scare the ever-living shit out of him by practically throwing the door open and bouncing into the house. Asahi nearly drops his drink but recovers quickly when he recognizes the head of ridiculous orange hair. Kageyama trails him and looks as impassive as ever, but Asahi notices how his eyes stay trained to Hinata’s back. 

“Would ya look at that, it’s the life of the party,” Daichi teases and ruffles his hair fondly. “Wasn’t sure you’d make it.” Kageyama just grunts and grabs the back of Hinata’s shirt before he barrels into someone in front of him. Tragically, this person happens to be Tsukishima. 

“What’s this?” He tilts his head up and situates his glasses so they reflect the light in an unpleasant way. “The King and his loyal subject?” 

“It’s not too early for a fight, Tsukishima,” Hinata says, already buzzing around his tall frame, his face set with determination.

Tsukishima, who normally ignores his taunts, stays where he is. He swats Hinata away and continues to smirk at Kageyama. “You love to make your pawns do your dirty work, don’t you?”

“I don’t know what a pawn is, but it sounds mean!” 

“Don’t be an idiot,” Kageyama says to Hinata crossly. 

“He’s being an idiot, not me!” 

“And here I was thinking we would all get along.” Asahi’s skin prickles at the sound of Daichi’s ‘you’re in for it now’ voice. “Now, what can I do with the problem children?” Asahi gulps. He’s glad not to be on the receiving end of that glare, but he takes a drink of solidarity anyway. 

“Let’s make them play nice,” Suga says, appearing at Daichi’s side. Suga’s grinning that way that looks just a little too sweet. Yamaguchi chooses that moment to return from the kitchen holding two drinks, presumably for himself and Tsukishima. He shoots his friend a questioning look. 

“How about a friendly round of dare or dare? With me as the mediator.” Suga grins innocently. 

“Why would we play that?” Hinata squawks, taking a step behind Kageyama, who raises an eyebrow at him. 

The group of freshman take one look at Daichi, giving them a murderous ‘do as he says and get out of my hair’ stare, and decide not to argue. 

“As I thought!” Suga beams. Pure evil, Asahi thinks through his cloudy brain. 

“What was that? Asahi, you want to help babysit?” 

“That’s not what I said,” he grumbles at the same time Suga says, “perfect!” He ushers them over to an unoccupied couch, ignoring Tsukishima’s protests that he can walk on his own. 

Suga pulls a die out of his pockets and gives each of them a number, starting with Asahi as one, Tsukishima as 2, Yamaguchi as 3, Hinata as 4, and Kageyama as 5. He explains that whoever it lands on has to do the dare he thinks of. 

“If it lands of 6, you all do a shot,” Suga says. They let out a collective groan. 

“Why do I have to play, again?” Asahi manages. Suga just shrugs. “You’re helping! Be a good role model, Asahi. These are our future leaders!”  
Asahi doesn’t put up much of a fight after that.

The dares start of simple enough. The die land on 2 and 5, Tsukishima and Kageyama have to switch drinks. The die lands on 4, Hinata has to go swipe a guys drink and move it somewhere else without him noticing. The die lands on 3 and 4 and Hinata and Yamaguchi have to swap their shirts (Hinata’s looks very stupid on Yamaguchi’s tall frame). Kageyama gives Hinata a weird side eye as he slips the shirt over his head. Asahi might be reading into it more than usual, due to the heat in his stomach making his brain cloudy from the alcohol, but he’s getting a strange feeling from Kageyama. He watches him respond to Hinata’s overdramatic movements with a quirk of the edge of his mouth, something almost like a smile. Asahi narrows his eyes at the two of them, but if he blinks the moment is gone. The die rolls and lands of 2 again and Tsukishima has to show the group the first 5 photos in his camera roll. He gets off easy; they’re all pictures of his chemistry notes.

The thing is, Asahi is sure that Suga is luring them into a false sense of security. The others are playing right into his hand, Asahi is sure of it. 

He wishes he had been wrong. 

“That’s a shot for the lot of you!” Suga cheers after a roll that lands on 6, passing around a half empty bottle. Hinata makes a terrible face after he takes his, passing it right along to Kageyama. Kageyama and Tsukishima at least do a better job of hiding it; Yamagushi tries and fails to do the same. “That’s all though, I’m not letting my little freshman get drunk.” Tsukishima rolls his eyes, but they all look slightly disappointed. “What? You honestly didn’t think I was going let freshman drink!” 

“Suga, you just gave them a shot.” 

“For the next dare,” Suga starts again, “you have to show me your most recent text thread.” Sugawara rolls the die; it lands on 4. Hinata freezes, his hands clutching his water and his mouth frozen in a little “o”. 

“Well?” Suga prompts. “Hand it over.” 

“Truth!” Hinata says. “I choose truth instead!”

“The game is dare or dare, dumbass,” Kageyama rolls his eyes. 

“Well I want a truth this round!” Hinata insists, glaring at Kageyama. 

Asahi looks over at Suga. His hand is outstretched, his eyebrows raised expectantly. Hinata fidgets and finally reaches for his pocket. When he pulls it out, Kageyama snatches it and hands it over to Suga. 

“Let’s seeee,” he drawls, presumably opening the messages app. “Oh! It was to Kenma.” Asahi frowns, wondering if the two of them are friends. “And you sent it like an hour ago? Let’s see what it says.” 

Hinata looks terrified. His fingers are tugging nervously at the hem of Yamaguchi’s too big shirt and he eyes dart quickly from Kageyama to the floor and then back again. 

“Hold on, Suga,” Asahi starts to say, but Suga is already ahead of him. His face looks surprised, but he’s already moving to hand the phone back to Hinata. 

“Well?” Kageyama says tightly. 

“I said I was going to read it, I didn’t say anything about telling all of you.” Suga grins and waves his hands. “So nosy!” 

Hinata snatches his phone back and shoves it into his pocket again before pulling his knees up to his chest and sinking backwards into the couch. He’s uncharacteristically quiet throughout the whole exchange, which makes Asahi feel uneasy. 

“Why were you texting Kozume?” Yamaguchi asks. He means it to be good natured, from what Asahi can tell, but Hinata just shakes his head and refuses to respond. 

“Let’s drop it, guys,” Asahi tries again nervously. He spares a glance back at Kageyama, who’s face is unreadable.

“Lets.” He agrees curtly. 

Tsukishima clicks his tongue in annoyance. 

“Why did you even come if you were going to be an ass?” Kageyama shoots at him. It’s uncharacteristic of Kageyama to get so worked up by his taunts, so Asahi shifts nervously on the couch. 

“Why did you?” He fires back venomously. At that, Hinata pops his head out from where it rested in his arms to chance a look in Kageyama. In that moment, Kageyama looks back down at Hinata. For some reason, Asahi feels like he knows what Kageyama is thinking. He’s felt it too. Hinata turns his head away to shove it back into his fetal position-like form. 

“Okaaaaay, anyway,” Suga says, once it becomes clear Kageyama is not going to respond, “we’re suppose to be getting along, remember?”  
None of them respond.

“I think I’m going to be sick,” Hinata blurts. “Tummy ache.” He jumps off the couch and disappears into the crowd before any of them can protest. At least he made off in the right direction towards the bathroom. Asahi suddenly becomes very aware of just how distorted his vision is. Am I drunk? He thinks stupidly, staring down at the empty cup. When had he finished another one? He brings his hand up in surprise to touch his face, which is somewhat numb. He lets his head fall back on the couch and decides he won’t go find Oikawa for another refill. 

“I’m going to roll two numbers this time. The first gets to pick the dare and the second has to do the dare.” Suga says. Suga rolls the dice and Asahi doesn’t look at the result, but he hears Tadashi yelp in surprise. 

“I don’t know any good dares!” Followed immediately by Kageyama saying, “don’t pick something stupid.” Tadashi whispers something to Tsukishima that Asahi can’t hear. 

“This seat taken?” The new voice makes Asahi turn his head back towards the group. A boy Asahi doesn’t recognize has flopped himself down into Hinata’s spot and has his arm slung around Kageyama, who looks wholly uncomfortable. Asahi straightens up immediately to eye the newcomer. His body language is much too familiar for Asahi’s liking; he shoots Suga a glance to find his friend is not looking at him, but staring towards the boy with his deadliest smile. 

“The seat is taken, actually,” Suga says, his voice sickeningly sweet. “Sorry.”

“No one’s in it right now though,” the boy smirks. 

Asahi hates him. 

Kageyama doesn’t respond, seemingly stunned into silence, but he does try to wiggle away from the boy’s tight grasp to put some space between their bodies. Asahi has never seen Kageyama without Hinata glued to his side; even at practice, the two seem to gravitate towards each other. Asahi has also never seen someone else touch Kageyama in such as friendly way. It’s really none of Asahi’s business, but the thing is Kageyama’s face is downright unnerved. Asahi has no explanation for the feeling of anger that burns in his chest. He opens his mouth to say something, only to be silenced by a signature “tsk” from the other side of the couch. 

“Pathetic,” Tsukishima spits. 

“What was that, bean pole?” 

“I said you’re pathetic.” 

“Tsuki,” Tadashi says quietly, like a warning. 

“We said there’s no room.” Tsukishima keeps his casual demeanor and posture, but his voice is dangerous. 

“He can speak for himself,” the boy says, snaking his arm back around Kageyama. “He’d say something if he wanted me to move.” Kageyama’s mouth forms a thin line and his whole body stiffens from the unwelcome contact. 

Tsukishima does move then; he sits up to his full height and tilts his head so he’s looking down on the boy. Even from their seated position, he towers over the rest of them, save Asahi. “The king is already exhausted from spending time with so many commoners,” he starts, “the last thing we need is a peasant.” Asahi thought he had heard the extent of Tsukishima’s taunts in practice. He was wrong. Tsukishima spits the word peasant out at the boy like he’s no better than dog shit on the bottom of his shoe. 

The boy leans forward, finally taking his hands away from Kageyama to focus on Tsukishima, who doesn’t flinch. “Be careful, or I’ll get offended.”

“Hm,” Tsukishima hums, “Tadashi?” Yamaguchi squares his shoulders and glances at Tsukishima. “Do I give a fuck if I offend peasants?” Tsukishima asks evenly. 

“No.” Yamaguchi responds. 

Asahi puts his arm out threateningly in front of Tsukishima and Yamaguchi before the boy can decide to try anything. The boy looks ready to start a fight, but shoots a glance around the couch first. Asahi can only imagine what the scene must look like. The boy looks panicked briefly enough for Asahi to think he must have realized that he’s about to get himself in a 4 on 1 brawl. He quickly stands with his hands in the air and backs away from the couch, trying to smirk again but looking slightly scared this time. 

“Sorry, my bad dude, I thought you were gay.” 

Tsukishima tsks at him again. “He’s obviously gay, idiot. Fuck off.” 

Asahi’s head swims from the confrontation. In the back of his mind it occurs to him to be happy that Kageyama no longer looks ready to lose his dinner all over Daichi’s couch. 

“Alcohol must make you bold, Asahi!” Suga laughs lightheartedly.

“Don’t say that like you weren’t just about to commit murder,” Asahi squeaks. His chest deflates and he sinks back into the couch. 

Suga throws him his best innocently surprised look. “Is this the face of a killer? Come on now, Asahi.” 

“Anyway,” Tsukishima says, his voice as even as always, “Kageyama owes Tadashi a dare.” Kageyama exhales finally and his body loses some of its tension. He raises an eyebrow at Tsukishima but seems to have no intention of fighting him on that subject. 

“Whatever,” he grumbles finally. 

“Who even was that?” Tadashi asks Suga, still sounding slightly annoyed. 

“I’m actually not sure.” 

“Who cares,” Tsukishima deadpans. For once, Asahi agrees with him. The interaction drained him more than hours of drinking; all he can think is how much he wants everyone to get along. 

The night, it seems, loves to foil his wishes. 

Asahi opens his eyes and searches the crowd for Hinata. He has been gone for a while. Asahi remembers what Oikawa told him about the stomach medicine. “I’ll be right back,” Asahi says, heading off for the kitchen. He tries not to stumble too much after standing; sitting down while drinking so much gave him the illusion he was less drunk than he is. He manages to make it to the fridge, find what he assumes is what Oikawa told him about, and starts to head back in the direction of the bathroom. 

Out of the corner of his eye, he sees movement. He turns his head just in time to see Hinata’s orange head of hair jumping towards a group of people he doesn’t recognize. He briefly considers going to get Suga, who is definitely much better at handling situations like this than he is. He swallows a lump in his throat. 

“What did you say?!” He yells. “Say it again! Say it to someone who wants to fight!”

Can he not just catch a break? 

“Hinata!” He whispers forcefully. “Hinata, get over here!”

Hinata gives him a confused look. “Asahi?” He shakes his head, and his face transforms back to anger. “No! If they want to talk about Kageyama,” he seethes, shoving his finger in the face of random upperclassman, “then let’s talk!” 

“Dude, all I said was freshman shouldn’t get a varsity spot,” the person in question doesn’t look the least bit worried about Hinata’s threats. “That’s obvious. Oikawa should easily be the starter, not some selfish kid.” 

Asahi jumps into the scene and grabs Hinata by the back of the shirt before he can pounce. 

“Don’t underestimate us!” He yells as Asahi drags him back. Then, to Asahi, “let go!” He manages to land a couple poorly aimed hits on Asahi’s forearms in his struggle attempts, but Asahi doesn’t let go. He pulls Hinata down the hallway and opens the door to the back porch before setting him down outside. 

“Now we’re going to cool off,” Asahi says, closing the door behind them. Hinata puts his hands on his hips and glares at him.

“That’s stupid! If they have a problem with Kageyama then I wanna show those pukes who’s boss.”

Asahi gives him a tired look and sighs, sinking down to sit on the porch steps. “We have to prove that on the field, Hinata.”

For a moment, Asahi thinks Hinata is going to ignore him and march back into the party anyway. After a long pause, he sits down next to Asahi. 

“It just makes me so mad. It’s like, they insult me too, but when they say that stuff about Kageyama it just makes me so… so WHA. It makes me feel all BLEH, ya know? Like I’m gonna lose it.” He throws his hands around and speaks with so much energy that it makes Asahi tired all over again, but he does know. 

“Yeah, I think I do.”

Hinata gives him a look. “You do?” 

Asahi doesn’t respond right away. He thinks of how he felt when he learned about how people treated Nishinoya, a familiar fire lighting in his chest. “It feels like it hurts you too, because it hurt them.”

Hinata nods vigorously. “I know Kageyama is big and scary and rude and a huge jerk, and he’s good at everything which is dumb.” He takes a breath. “I can’t explain it, but he’s not untouchable. Everyone thinks he is, that’s why they treat him like that. But he’s _not_.” 

“You should trust him, though. Kageyama is good enough to prove them wrong. He's strong, too.”

“I know that,” Hinata muses. “I just can’t help it.”

“If we go back in there, are you going to start something that I have to finish? Because don’t tell Suga, but I’m sort of tipsy right now. And I’ve never been in a fight.” After a beat, Hinata responds, “maybe we should wait out here a little longer.” 

After a while of silence, Asahi can't help himself, so he asks, "what did your text to Kozume say, anyway? You nearly lost your dinner over that."

Hinata blushes a deep shade of red. "Nothing! N-nothing about Kageyama, if that's what you're thinking!"

Asahi smiles to himself but doesn't say anything else.

They sit on the porch quietly for what seems like a long time. Even Hinata lets the comfortable silence drag on. 

In Asahi’s rush to get Hinata out of his tussle, he didn’t notice the girls that started to show up at the party. 

Because the two sit outside for some time, they aren’t inside when Nishinoya and Tanaka come in with the rest of the cheerleading squad. They aren’t inside when the upperclassman who were causing issues before start feeling drunk and bolder than before. They’re sitting outside peacefully when the mood of the party starts to shift unpleasantly. 

But because of silence, Asahi hears perfectly when a familiar raspy voice starts yelling threats from inside. He can hear the commotion from inside as the music goes quiet, but nothing is louder in his head than Nishinoya’s voice. He’s on his feet before he can give it a second thought, throwing the door open and running, his heartrate quickening as panic pulses through his veins.


	6. you're going to catch the gay

"If we go I’m just warning you now that I’m going to punch Asahi.” Nishinoya can’t see his face from how he’s laying on his bed facing the ceiling, but he can tell Tanaka is scowling from the way he says it. Nishinoya just laughs. 

“No you won’t.”

“I might,” Tanaka grumbles from the floor. 

The thing is, Nishinoya wants to go to the party. The cheerleaders crash every year, so it’s tradition, and nothing is going to stop him from enjoying that. But if he’s honest, there’s someone he wants to bump into. The issue is convincing Tanaka, who has made it his mission to stop all Asahi related contact after Nishinoya had called him crying about The Incident with his parents (not literally, of course, but he had been on the verge of frustrated tears for a couple hours). 

In his defense, Asahi really had looked like he was going to barf just at the mention of being referred to as Nishinoya’s “boyfriend”. He’s used to people reacting weirdly when they find out he’s bisexual, but it just hurt differently when it was Asahi, seeing as Nishinoya has the fattest crush on him. Maybe it makes him weak, but he misses being around him regardless. Besides, Asahi is a push over, he’ll probably apologize if Nishinoya makes him. He wants them to go back to being friends. He tells himself he can forget being pressed against his warm chest in favor of the greater good. Or, he thinks as a wicked grin spreads across his face, he can just keep torturing him in the form of workouts. At least he can surely have that back. He’s gotten very good at looking without touching. He’s not one to ignore his instincts and what he wants, and right now he wants shots and to get himself into a compromising position with the big tall idiot who hurt his feelings. Tanaka is much less understanding. 

“I heard Kiyoko might go,” Nishinoya singsongs. This is his trump card; he’s hoping it pulls through. “All the senior squad girls are going together. That’s just what I heard from Yachi.” 

“Kiyoko?” Tanaka chokes out. “Kiyoko is going?”

“Just what I heard,” Nishinoya says, trying to play it off the best he can. 

“Noya, I know what you’re doing.” Tanaka says skeptically. “Your hair is down.” 

Nishinoya raises his eyebrow. “So?”

“You always do that when you’re planning on flirting.” Tanaka says accusingly. “I’m your wingman, dude, I know this shit.”

Well shit. Nishinoya tugs at the ends of his hair absent mindedly, then lets it go as it curls around his ears and forehead. He just gives Tanaka a smirk. “Maybe I’m out to steal your girl.”

“Please! Kiyoko is too good for everyone, especially us.” Tanaka huffs. 

Nishinoya laughs at that. The captain of the cheer squad had never shown interest in anyone on the football team, no matter how hard they tried. And they tried. An idea pops into Nishinoya’s head. 

“I bet a ton of guys will be trying to flirt with her tonight,” Nishinoya lets out an exaggerated sigh. “So annoying. I mean, she really never can catch a break. Poor Kiyoko.”

Tanaka’s head pops up over where Nishinoya is laying on his back on the bed. His face is scrunched into an expression like he’s trying very hard not to cave in right now. Nishinoya looks away and lets out another dramatic sigh. 

“She’ll probably wish they would leave her alone. That’s the price of beauty, I suppose.”

“We can stop by!” Tanaka says too loudly. “There’s something I need to check on.” Nishinoya can’t help it, he jumps into a sitting position in excitement. 

“We’re gonna need to pregame, I bet everyone there is already drunk-”

“But Noya, so help me god, I will not hesitate to wreck that boy if he even looks at me,” Tanaka adds. Nishinoya rolls his eyes. He’s fond of Tanaka, even when he’s standoffish and threatening. Nishionya has seen him fight before, so he knows it’s now an idle statement, but there’s no bite behind it. It’s funny to Nishinoya how everyone always sees Tanaka as intimidating when they first meet; Nishinoya never thought of him that way. The two got along almost instantly. He remembers the first time they got detention together in elementary school and smiles fondly at the memory, forgetting about the threat entirely. 

“Whatever you say, Ryu,” he says, jumping off the bed to grab his stash of drinks. 

Before he knows it Nishinoya is standing outside Daichi’s house. He’s pleasantly buzzed, and the alcohol blanket keeps the autumn air from sending a shiver down his spine. He shoves his hands deep into the pocket of his black jeans out of habit, the numbness from the chill already setting in. There are a few people standing outside of the house milling around, and the noise coming from inside is muted but recognizable. He squares his shoulders and puts his hands on his hips, throwing a glance over his shoulder at Tanaka trailing behind him. His face is scrunched in determination, making Nishinoya want to laugh.

“We’re coming Kiyoko!” Tanaka stalks past him and up the porch steps past the people outside. Nishinoya doesn’t recognize any of them, so he follows Tanaka inside. 

“Nishinoya! Tanaka!” He turns around at the sound of Daichi’s voice and slaps on a shit-eating grin. 

“Well hello, captain sir,” Nishinoya teases, throwing Daichi his best mock salute. Daichi raises an eyebrow at him almost like he’s trying to say, ‘do not test me’. That’s when Nishinoya always wants to crack another joke, and the alcohol in his system is not helping that habit. 

“Status report, sir!” Tanaka chimes in behind him. 

“Seems to be some drunk cadets, captain!”

“Two more just entered the building!”

“This will have to be reported to the commander!”

Daichi jumps forward to smack the back of their heads. Nishinoya is fast enough to duck, but he manages to catch Tanaka with a firm slap. 

“I’m going to tell mom!” Nishinoya taunts, looking around animatedly for Suga. 

“Suga is babysitting the other problem children,” Daichi says through gritted teeth, making Nishinoya laugh. 

“No where is safe,” Tanaka says solemnly, rubbing the back of his head. Daichi rolls his eyes. 

“Get out of my way, you two,” he says. “Cause problems somewhere else, just don’t break anything or anyone.”

“No promises!” They sing-song in unison as they step out of the kitchen and into the living room. In the corner Nishinoya can see people playing some different games, but the small space where Daichi lives with his father is clearly not suited for the entire football team plus extras. He scans the room and sees some of his squad members mingling or playing games, but not who he’s looking for. He frowns slightly as he continues to make his way through the swarm of people in the dimly lit room. It’s never hard to spot Asahi; he’s taller and broader than almost everyone on the football team. Nishinoya wonders if Tanaka notices him searching the crowd, but when he turns around, he sees him doing the same thing.

“Is Kiyoko even here yet?” 

Nishinoya obviously hadn’t been looking. He shrugs his shoulders in response and keeps moving. 

“All I’m saying is that shorty should shut the fuck up,” a guy is saying loudly over to the side of the room. Nishinoya stiffens; there’s not very many people who get referred to as “shorty” on a team of football players. Logically, he knows they aren’t talking about him. He’s never met those people and certainly never started anything with them. Logically, he knows this, but it takes him a second to collect his thoughts and drop out of fight or flight mode anyway. Shorty? Are they talking about Hinata? He puts his arm out behind him to stop Tanaka from walking farther. 

“He was asking for it. And dude, did you see who was with him? That fucking guy, give me a break.”

“Right? He’s nothing special. That pissed me off.” The guy talking knocks back the rest of this drink and throws the can at the nearest trash can. He misses. 

“Two people who don’t deserve their spots on the team.” His friend snorts. 

“The newbie and the feral child,” the guy starts laughing along with his friend. Nishinoya feels Tanaka stiffen next to him. He must also think they’re talking about Shouyou, but Nishinoya is thinking of Asahi now. 

“I was right and I’ll say it again,” he says, very loudly and very drunkly. “Shit faced bratty freshman shouldn’t take seniors spots. And I can’t believe he got all in my face about it, dude has a death wish.”

Now he’s certain they’re talking about Shouyou. 

“And seniors who moved here 5 days ago with no talent shouldn’t make starting line up.” Someone else has joined into their conversation. No one is paying them much mind, everyone absorbed in what they were doing already. Hardly anyone is listening to them, and they can probably tell that from the way they’re going on and on. 

“You talking about that transfer? Seriously, and some of us have been playing on this team for _years _. They just gave him a spot? Bullshit.”__

__The guy keeps talking, but now Nishinoya just sees red. His body is moving before he can even think, his fists balled up at his sides._ _

__Tanaka is faster. He barrels in right past Nishinoya and lands a hit on the guy before he can finish his statement, or before Nishinoya can even think straight._ _

__“Hey!” He yells, jumping towards the other guy who is staring at Tanaka with wide eyes. “I was going to do that!” He lands a nice upper cut on the guy’s jaw, but he recovers quickly and counters. The hit he throws back lands squarely on Nishinoya’s side, and he lets out a loud yell from the impact. He growls and pushes all his weight into another firm punch that send the guy stumbling back. He spares a glance over at Tanaka, who is arm-locked wrestling with sheer force. He’s yelling too, but Nishinoya’s ears are ringing from the impact of being hit and everything sounds far away from the adrenaline. He whips his head back around in time to see the third person that had been standing by the bathroom is helping the other to his feet, looking murderously at Nishinoya._ _

__“What?” He snarls, throwing on a smirk. “You had a lot to say a minute ago, don’t be shy now.”_ _

__They’re probably saying something to him, something mean or annoying, but Nishinoya isn’t paying attention. Everyone around is starting to stumble closer to see what’s going on; Nishinoya can feel their eyes on him. In makes his smirk grow across his face._ _

__“Sure have a lot of shit to talk for people who aren’t any better than ‘shit-faced freshman’,” he taunts. The person helping the other guy up drops him and starts to lunge forward at Nishinoya. He stiffens his muscles, holds his arms up in defense, and waits for the impact, but it doesn’t come._ _

__“That’s enough.” That voice rings in Nishinoya’s ears, breaking his concentration. He looks up and sees a big hand squeezing the shoulder of the guy who was about to jump him. From the twisted look on the guy’s face, he can tell the grip is probably bone-crushing. The owner of the hand pivots in a split second, without letting go of his hold, so that he’s standing in front of Nishinoya. It takes Nishinoya this amount of time to realize it’s Asahi. His stomach clenches at the warm presence between him and the guys. Relief? The familiar slope of his broad shoulders in front of him pulls Nishinoya back into the reality of the moment. He pokes his head out from behind Asahi and sees the two of them scrambling backwards out of his reach, muttering an apology. Asahi’s head whips in the direction of Tanaka, who still shoving his assailant away from him. Asahi takes one step and to his left, squares his shoulders, and holds his other arm out in front of Tanaka. The guy scootches back reluctantly, eyeing Asahi like he’s trying to decide what to do next._ _

__“I said, that’s enough.” Asahi’s tone is final and unwavering in a way that Nishinoya has never heard. He wishes he could see Asahi’s face; see the expression he’s wearing when he talks like that. It makes a familiar feeling pool low in his stomach. It makes him want to do a lot of things. He vaguely becomes aware of the people around them. They’re standing back and watching, looking apprehensive about the situation. Nishinoya sees a familiar head of orange hair pop up and then disappear again, only to pop right back up. Nishinoya thinks it must be Shouyou trying to see over the crowd. Sure enough, he elbows his way through and ends up standing directly behind the three boys who have pushed their way out of the reach of Nishinoya, Tanaka, and Asahi. They shoot him an annoyed look, but he’s only paying attention to Asahi._ _

__“So cool!” He says breathily, his eyes and face open in that way that make him look like an excited child._ _

__Asahi looks over and spots him, and his shoulders stiffen again. He moves his head, presumably to look back at the three guys again. They scoff at Shouyou but pick themselves up and head towards the door. Nishinoya scans the crowd for Tanaka, and sees that he’s been pulled aside by Daichi and Suga. The three of them are absorbed in their conversation and Tanaka doesn’t see him looking. Without saying a word, Asahi grabs Nishionya’s hand and drags him away from the scene. The music is still blaring over the speakers, but most of the chatter died out during the conflict. People move to let them through and most of the guys seem to awkwardly go back to what they were doing before._ _

__Nishinoya takes a full minute of being pulled to realize how warm Asahi’s hand is. Or rather, he hadn’t realized his own hands were cold until now with them wrapped tightly inside his. Asahi has large hands, Nishinoya knows this, but they’ve never held his like this before. The feelings makes his drunk head swim. He would keep following him even if he let his hand go, but Asahi hangs on, his grip firm and comforting. A lazy smile slips its way onto Nishinoya’s face despite the situation._ _

__They’ve made it to a mostly empty hallway when Asahi finally stops moving and sinks down with his back pressed against the wall. He doesn’t drop Nishinoya’s hand. His knees are pulled to his chest and he props his elbows up on them, his hands, along with Nishinoya’s, pressed to his face. Nishinoya just stands in front of him and tries to process all of that._ _

__It occurs to him to be annoyed at Asahi for trying to protect him; he doesn’t need anyone to fight his battles. He’s been doing it on his own for long enough now. He opens his mouth to say as much, but then-_ _

__“Man, that was really scary,” Asahi says. His voice has a tremor in it, and he lets out a shaky sigh under his breath, not looking up at Nishinoya. Asahi’s hands squeeze tighter._ _

__“Yeah you nearly got punched in the face, macho man,” Nishinoya deadpans, trying to keep his tone light and joking._ _

__“Not that,” Asahi says softly. “When I thought that guy was going to hit you again.” Nishinoya feels his eyes widen slightly. He’s not sure what to say to that. He’s seen Asahi look scared. It’s almost more of his natural disposition to be anxious about things. Nishinoya thinks he gets it, most of the time. He’s been scared for himself before. But Asahi being scared for his sake?_ _

__He moves so that his back is facing the wall and sits down next to Asahi. He resituates his arm to accommodate for the hand Asahi is clutching, but the awkward movement must remind Asahi that he’s holding on because he lets go quickly like he’s been burned. He turns to look at Nishinoya for the first time. His face is bright red, but his eyes are slightly lidded and serene. Nishinoya wonders for a second if it’s because he’s drunk too, but loses the thought process as he stares back at Asahi._ _

__It’s so hard to understand his emotions. His eyes look so open and kind, but his face and his actions make it seem like he can’t believe he was just touching Nishinoya like that. It’s suddenly so infuriating that Nishinoya knows he’s about to lose his cool and say something rash, but he can’t bring himself to stop. He’s been getting the on and off vibe for weeks, and he can’t go on ignoring Asahi anymore. The words start to rise up and burn in his throat like bile._ _

__“Why do you have to be so weird about it,” he seethes. His tone must startle Asahi, because then his eyes shoot open and his whole face looks panicked. Good. Nishinoya realizes that letting that out made his chest feel lighter; he’s been holding it in for so long. “Like, it’s whatever if you’re weirded out that I’m into boys or whatever. But fuck, you always seem so kind and like such a sweetheart then you go and do that.” Nishinoya gestures wildly to his hand. Asahi practically jumps backwards to put space between them, almost like he’s _trying _to prove Nishinoya’s point.___ _

____“Like that!” He says exasperatedly. “Don’t act so- so homophobic about it! Fine, I like holding your hand, but you started it! Why do you have to push me off every time like you’re going to catch the gay? Jesus,” Nishinoya says it like a curse. Maybe he’s being unfair, it’s possible to make straight people uncomfortable. But he’s been so cautious about it; he’s never been forceful or overbearing. He sets his expression like a challenge at Asahi. What are you going to do now? He wants to say. You can’t run away from me forever._ _ _ _

____Asahi’s face is contorted into the most confused expression Nishinoya has ever seen. It gives him pause long enough to make his resolve falter, stopping him from pressing any farther. Does he seriously not get it? Then, as if nothing else more absurd could happen, Asahi starts to laugh. He throws his head back with the force of it and clutches his stomach. He laughs so hard he nearly falls over. The anger in Nishinoya’s chest dissipates immediately as he thinks of the only other time he’s seen Asahi laugh that way. The night they set the cookies on fire, when he threw his head back and laughed like all his worries were lifted off his shoulders. Nishinoya had never seen Asahi look that way, so worry-free and effortlessly happy. It gave him the weirdest feeling, like he was going to start crying at how beautiful it was. Instead he had laughed too because it had been impossible not to. He’s struck by it even now; the way his head tilts back and his neck bobs just a little, the way his hair falls around and nearly covers his face, the way his eyes shut tight like he has nothing to watch out for. Nishinoya can’t help forgiving him for everything in that moment. Maybe he is drunker than he thought._ _ _ _

____“Yuu,” Asahi says after a minute. “I don’t think gay people can be homophobic.”_ _ _ _

____What?_ _ _ _

____“Well, they probably can, actually,” Asahi continues thoughtfully, laughing some still, “but I’m definitely not. I can’t believe you thought that.”_ _ _ _

____“Beh,” Nishinoya stutters out. He’s too shocked to say anything coherent. His mind is racing a thousand miles a minute trying to process what Asahi just said. He’s gay? Nishinoya starts to rethink their interactions from the beginning, every time he misunderstood Asahi’s intentions. He’s sure steam is coming out of his ears with the effort of it._ _ _ _

____“But,” he says, still not really sure how to respond. Defensively, he says, “what about the other day? You literally looked like you thought you were gonna barf at the idea we were dating when my mom said it.”_ _ _ _

____Asahi’s face is bright red, the way he always gets when Nishinoya asks him direct questions about his actions. Why does that happen?_ _ _ _

____“Oh,” he says, sounding nervous. “Ah, I’d, um, rather not say.”_ _ _ _

____“Bullshit!” NIshinoya presses. “There’s so many times! You always look uncomfortable by stuff like that. You didn’t even finish your pancakes! They’re delicious pancakes.”_ _ _ _

____“Well, um, you see,” Asahi fumbles, tripping over all the words. He’s nervously playing with his hands and his head is dipped down facing away from Nishinoya._ _ _ _

____“And not even to mention the way you literally jumped out of your skin when we… woke up on the floor.” Nishinoya continues. “Oh! And remember that time when we were in the weight room-”_ _ _ _

____“Just drop it, please!”_ _ _ _

____“-and I almost fell over doing pull-ups, but then-”_ _ _ _

____Asahi’s hand shoots out to cover Nishinoya’s mouth, silencing him. He moves to be more directly in front of Nishinoya, his weight leaning against him more than before. Nishinoya looks at his face then. He’s blushing in the way that makes his cheeks look like fire. His eyes are wide, searching, and his eyebrows scrunched together in a question._ _ _ _

____“I need to ask you something,” he says shakily. Nishinoya can tell he’s chalking up all his confidence by the way his mouth forms a thin but wobbly line. It sobers him up and quiets his racing mind enough for him to nod._ _ _ _

____Asahi takes a breath. “Do I make you uncomfortable?” Nishinoya can feel himself raise an eyebrow. He shakes his head. It’s a lie to say no; Asahi’s making him uncomfortable in this moment. He wants to squirm with Asahi’s weight pressed against him in another way. He’s never been comfortable when Asahi is around. It makes his skin crawl with the want to be touched and seen. It makes his hands twitch at the thought of being able to let them linger on Asahi’s warm skin for longer than just the necessary moment. He shakes his head anyway, because he knows that can’t be what Asahi means._ _ _ _

____Asahi keeps his hand on Nishinoya’s mouth, but he moves his other hand up with his fingers outstretched towards Nishinoya’s face. Nishinoya’s skin prickles at the thought of what it would feel like if he touched him. Before he can think twice about it, he tilts his head slightly so it bumps against Asahi’s hand. Asahi inhales sharply, but a small, bewildered smile forms on his lips._ _ _ _

____Asahi has nice lips. Nishinoya is thinking about this, so he watches as Asahi’s lips part just enough for him to speak._ _ _ _

____“There’s a reason I was acting that way,” Asahi whispers. Nishinoya drags his gaze away from his lips to stare questioningly at his eyes. Asahi’s hand is still resting on his face. He moves it away to grasp at the ends of Nishinoya’s hair curling around his face. Asahi twirls it around his finger gingerly and Nishinoya thinks his heart might beat out of his chest at the feeling of it. Unconsciously he leans forward to chase the feeling of being nearer, warmer, touching._ _ _ _

____“I didn’t,” he says finally. He’s got a dreamy look in his eyes as he watches Nishinoya’s hair between his fingers. “I didn’t want to barf when your mom called me your boyfriend.” Asahi looks at him like that explains everything._ _ _ _

____Nishinoya’s glad that Asahi’s hand is over his mouth, because for once he’s stunned to silence._ _ _ _

____“And I didn’t want to move when we were next to each other on the floor.” The blush returns to Asahi’s cheeks. He takes a slow breath._ _ _ _

____“And I didn’t want to ever put you down when I was holding you for stunts.”_ _ _ _

____Nishinoya’s chest feels like it’s burning with the sensation of Asahi’s words. This is not how he expected this to go._ _ _ _

____“And I didn’t want to stop holding your hand just now either.”_ _ _ _

____Without thinking, Nishinoya starts to move. Asahi is sitting with his legs crossed in front of Nishinoya, his arms outstretched away from his torso. Nishinoya leans forward and lets his head thump softly against Asahi’s chest. Asahi’s hands fall away from his face down to his sides. Asahi’s smell engulfs his senses; it’s so similar to the night that he wore his sweatshirt that his heart clenches at the memory. This is better. The smell and the warmth together along with the solid feeling of Asahi against his forehead makes him want to melt. Asahi doesn’t move at all while Nishinoya resituates himself, like he’s afraid of Nishinoya pulling away. To prove that he won’t, Nishinoya stretches out his leg over Asahi’s so he’s all but sitting in his lap. Asahi responds, finally, by wrapping his arms tightly around Nishinoya’s back. There’s still noise in the background, seemingly the party has resumed as before, but it seems so far away to Nishinoya compared to this moment._ _ _ _

____Something stirs in Nishinoya’s stomach. No, he wants to tell it. Panic starts to flower before he can stop it. _I don’t need protecting, I don’t need to rely on him, I don’t need protecting, I don’t need him _, the thoughts threaten. Nishinoya stiffens. _I don’t need protecting _. He opens his mouth and starts to say so, but Asahi beats him to it._____ _ _ _

________“Your stronger than me,” he says firmly. “You really are. I don’t understand how you can be so brave all the time.” The thoughts stirring in Nishinoya’s stomach quiet. Asahi loosens his grip to look at Nishinoya’s face. “But you told me to catch you.”_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________Something about the way he says it holds more emotion than Nishinoya knows how to process. It sounds like a promise. Nishinoya is used to needing to rely on himself; he’s used to trusting only himself. As much as he loves Tanaka, he knows his friend sees him as breakable. Asahi is looking at him like nothing can touch him. _He thinks that of me _, he thinks with wonder. Nishinoya realizes that Asahi has never seen him as weak. This time, when he moves towards Asahi, he wraps his arms around him and pulls himself as close as they can get. He’s not sure he has the words for how much that means to him. I asked him to catch me, he thinks. I asked him and I meant it.___ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

__________They stay that way for a long time, and neither of them make any motion to move. Asahi nuzzles into his hair a little with his chin and Nishinoya feels his chest shudder with a chuckle._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

__________“Hinata must think I’m a hypocrite,” Asahi says. Nishinoya isn’t sure exactly what he’s referring to, but he frowns anyway._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

__________“Hinata thinks you hung the stars, you oaf.”_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

__________“Huh?”_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

__________Nishinoya continues to frown against his chest, but makes no move to look up at him. He’s very comfortable. “You’d have to be blind not to see that.”_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

__________“He’s only ever talking about getting more touchdowns than me in practice.”_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

__________Nishinoya rolls his eyes even though Asahi can’t see him. “He does that because he respects you on the team, ya know. He’s like, your biggest fan or something. He wants to be more dependable than you on offense someday, is all.”_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

__________Asahi huffs but doesn’t immediately respond. “I think I get this team now, but it’s strange.”_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

__________“How do you mean?” Nishinoya says lazily. He’s curious, but his head is starting to feel heavy with sleep._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

__________“Everyone fights more than any other team I’ve ever played on. It’s like, everyone is always at everyone’s throats, but never actually angry or anything? There’s just so much emotion all the time.” He sighs before continuing, like he’s trying to gather his thoughts. “But everyone wants the best for each other too.”_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

__________“It’s like family.” Nishinoya supplies simply._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

__________“Y-yeah,” Asahi agrees. “It feels like family.”_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

__________Nishinoya snuggles into his chest again. If he weren’t still tipsy and tired, he might have stopped himself from doing it to save face. Instead, he let his sleepy tendencies take over and curls in just enough to be flush against Asahi’s warmth. He’s certain that Asahi says more, but he drifts off to sleep before he can commit any of it to memory._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

__________The next thing he knows, he’s being jostled. He frowns without opening his eyes. He had been so comfortable, what is going on? He feels the arms around him shift and then slide away as his back meets a soft, solid surface. Then all he feels is the absence of the warmth and the smells from before. His eyes open slowly as a result._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

__________He comes to his senses enough to notice that he’s in his own bed wearing his clothes from the party. His shoes are gone, and the comforter is pulled up and wrapped around him. Asahi is standing near the bed giving him a curious look._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

__________“Sorry to wake you,” he whispers. “I tried not to.”_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

__________“’s okay,” Nishinoya mumbles. Asahi stands there like he knows he could leave but doesn’t want to. The moment is suspended strangely, like both of them are unsure of what should happen next. It’s dark, so Nishinoya can’t see Asahi’s face to know what he’s thinking. Nishinoya wants to ask Asahi to stay. He’s wanted to ask Asahi to stay so many times. This time he can._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

__________“Stay,” he whispers simply. He curls his fists into the sheets. He might wince internally at how raw his voice sounds tomorrow, but he can’t find it within himself to care. For a moment it looks like Asahi might leave anyway, but somehow Nishinoya knows that he won’t._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

__________Asahi moves slowly to take off his own shoes before coming back to the bed by Nishinoya. Tentatively he stretches his arms over Nishinoya and crawls into the spot next to him. He slips under the sheets without saying anything, facing the ceiling._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

__________“Yuu,” Asahi breathes again. It’s the same as the first time Asahi said his name. Like he’s amazed by it. Then his hand finds Nishinoya’s and holds it tight. The contact changes everything for some reason. It’s solidifying that they can’t explain it away, that it means something. And it means what Nishinoya wants it to mean._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

__________There’s so much Nishinoya wants to say back to him. His mind buzzes with everything he wants Asahi to know. He hasn’t been able to say what he wants to say all evening. He busted into the night thinking he would know what to do, but then Asahi happened. Maybe it should scare him more than it does that Asahi has that effect, but it doesn’t. He smiles into the darkness. He can’t find the words to say it, so he thinks it to himself. _You’re strong, too _, Nishinoya wants to say. _Even if you don’t think so _._____ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _


	7. these are our feral gremlins

The air is cold. Asahi bites back a shudder as he fidgets nervously with the hem of his uniform. Earlier it had been the kind of day where the sun was shining, which had warded off most of the sharpness of the cold. Now that the sun has retreated leaving the clear night behind, the wind is harder to ignore. The thermal under his jersey isn’t doing much other than keeping the worst of it from stinging his skin. He lets out a puff of air and watches it as the warm air circles in the harsh, artificial lights shining onto the field. He tilts his head up and closes his eyes slowly. The beat of the music playing over the speakers thrums in his ears, but he doesn’t listen to it. He breathes in deeply and focuses on smell of fresh cut grass and, faintly, of fresh paint. Then he smiles. 

The nerves are pooling in his stomach, but there’s something else too. Excitement. He clenches and unclenches his hands, absentmindedly still trying to warm them up, even though he is no longer thinking about the chill in the air. 

“Circle up!” Daichi calls from the end of the field. They’re about to begin their warm-up routine for the game. Everyone jogs over to stand by Daichi, energy radiating from them all. Asahi looks around the group. Hinata and Kageyama are oddly quiet, both intently focused on whatever is about to be said. Asahi notices that Hinata’s hands are shaking at his side, and one of them reaches out to grab the fabric of the towel around Kageyama’s waist. If Kageyama notices, he says nothing about it. Next to Hinata, Kenma is staring straightforward as undisturbed and quietly calm as usual. There’s something almost unnerving about the way Kenma arranges his face so impassively; Asahi wouldn’t want to be staring at him on the other team. Kuroo stands tall behind him. Tsukishima and Yamaguchi stand off to the side of the group, listening but seemingly unbothered by the nerves. Oikawa has his arms crossed over his chest and doesn’t look happy, but he looks focused and ready anyway. The energy is less sporadic and out of control than usual; everyone is waiting. Everyone is full of concentrated anticipation. A hand slaps hard against his back and Tanaka appears beside him. He doesn’t look over, just crosses his arms over his chest with his gaze fixed on Daichi. Asahi knows this is the acknowledgment he gets, and he’s fine with that. 

Thursday morning, in the aftermath of the party, Tanaka had come to Asahi’s house with his hands shoved in his pockets and his shoulders slumped. He stared at Asahi when he opened the door, almost like Asahi was meant to know what he was there for. After a moment, he had run a hand over his closely shaved hair and exhaled sharply. 

“If Noya’s happy, we don’t have a problem,” he had finally said. He looked at Asahi like he was waiting for the mutual approval of this agreement. Asahi had smiled then, in relief, and nodded back at Tanaka. Not having a problem was better than things had been since he joined the team. And when Asahi had asked if he wanted to come in and stay for lunch, he looked almost happy to be hanging out with him. 

Asahi can hardly keep himself from turning and saying something to him now, like they’re friends, so he pinches his mouth into a thin line to avoid making a fool of himself. Suga might make fun of him if he notices, but Asahi know this is unlikely given how captivated he is with Daichi. Asahi redirects his attention and the captain finally starts to speak. 

“We’re ready for this,” he says, and then pauses. “But I’ll guarantee that’s what the other team captain is saying to their team right now too. Listen, I know we can do this. We all know we can do this. So let’s go show the other team whose field they’re on right now.” 

Around Asahi, the tension finally breaks as everyone roars around Daichi. The energy cracks like a whip around their circle as they all push against each other while yelling. Asahi hardly recognizes his voice from the one next to him; he doesn’t even realize he’s yelling too until he feels his throat go raw. Daichi steps away from middle and joins their huddle. The coach raises and lowers his arms in an attempt to regain order and silence the last of the hollers. 

“I’m going to be honest with you all. From what I know about this team, they’re evenly matched with us on a skill level, so you’re going to have to play your hardest. Offense, I have it on record this team gets a lot of calls. They’re known for playing rough, so we’re going to have to be precise and adapt to how things look as we go. Some of our more straight forward plays might get shut down right away; it’s going to be hard to break their line. That being said, I know our scorers.” The coach’s face breaks into a wicked smile and Hinata stirs restlessly. “And I have no doubt we can win this game. Do your best and warm up properly. Keep drinking water even though it’s cold out there. Kageyama and Oikawa, hang back for a second.” 

Asahi waits along with the team to be dismissed to start warm up drills. He breaks off with the other offensive players and Hinata immediately gravitates over to his side. He fidgets nervously with the pads on his shoulders and jogs a little faster than necessary. 

“What do you think he wants with Kageyama?” Hinata questions nervously over his shoulder. 

“I’m not sure,” Asahi says, lost in thought. “Maybe about the changing the plays on the field stuff?” Asahi throws a look down at the orange mop of hair. “I’m sure Kageyama is still starting. Coach wouldn’t change that on us for no reason.” 

“Yeah, I wasn’t worried,” Hinata rushes. 

“And you’ll be great either way,” Asahi says, mostly because it’s true. “But I know Kageyama will be throwing to you tonight.” 

Hinata slows his pace and then stops. He smiles brightly up at Asahi. “Yeah, he will!” Asahi decides that being around Hinata is a little like being around an open flame. He returns the smile with one of his own. 

They run through their dynamic stretches and drills with practiced precision. They make very few mistakes from what Asahi can see, even less than in practice only a day before. As often as he’ll allow himself, Asahi spares a glance over at the other team. They only have a few players larger than Asahi or Tsukishima from the looks of it, but Asahi can tell from his glances that they’re fast and quick on their feet. He doesn’t see them make any mistakes either. He nearly misses a toss while looking over and hears a familiar laugh from the end of the field. 

“Pay attention!” Nishinoya yells as he walks on the track with the other cheerleaders. He’s wearing his warm-up pants and cheer hoodie, along with a beanie pulled down securely over his forehead and ears. His cheeks are red from the wind, which makes him look unbearably cute. More than anything Asahi wants to hug him close to his warm chest and kiss the chill off his pink nose. 

He can’t help be think back on the morning when he had woken up with Nishinoya’s weight planted firmly on his chest. Nishinoya’s hands had been clinging to Asahi’s shirt from the night before, unconsciously twisted into the fabric. Asahi’s heart had clenched with the urge to squeeze him tighter, even at the risk of waking him. He did, and watched Nishinoya’s face hesitantly to ensure he kept sleeping. His features remained smooth and neutral, his lips without their usual smirk. It struck Asahi then that even in his sleep, Nishinoya was still a force of nature, if Asahi’s beating heart was anything to go by. 

“Oi,” Asahi hears Suga say behind him, bringing him swiftly back to the moment, “stop staring and wipe that lovesick look off your face.” 

Dumbly, Asahi reaches a hand up to his face. He hadn’t even noticed he was smiling and staring like an idiot. 

“I tried to tell him to pay attention, mom, honest!” 

“You’re such a little shit,” Suga says to Nishinoya fondly before grabbing shoving a football into Asahi’s stomach hard enough to make him cough. 

Asahi focuses through most of the warm-ups, but sneaks the occasional glance over to Nishinoya. He’s going through his own warm-ups with the rest of the cheerleaders; they practice a few different movements and stunts, all of which end in excited smiles from Nishinoya and his team. Asahi exhales and looks back at the drill in front of his as his turn approaches. He moves through the drill quickly and precisely and moves on to the next station. 

Once they finish their warm-ups, they move to the bench and sideline area. There are no more speeches or warnings, only discussions of plays and tactics as they wait for the coin toss. It goes in their favor, Daichi reports, and before Asahi has the chance to blink it’s their time to take the field. 

“It never gets old,” Suga says wistfully behind him. “The jitters from waiting before a game.”

Asahi can only stare as he’s reminded of his uneasiness when it comes to waiting for something. 

“I think you’re crazy, Suga,” he breathes nervously. “Like, really. I’ve figured it out. I think you might have a screw or two loose.” 

Suga laughs and waves his hands in the air, unfazed. 

“I wasn’t kidding,” Asahi grumbles under his breath. Suga winks at him and Daichi appears behind him.

Asahi feels the burden of the moment in an instant. He wishes he had the words to say to explain to the two people standing in front of him the impact they had on him. He’s excited for the game, and to play with them, but he’s also just happy they’re friends. Briefly, he thinks of his first day and how Nishinoya strong-armed him into showing up for practice. The memory makes his lips quirk up into a half smile and his chest fill with gratitude. 

“He’s going to say something cheesy, isn’t he,” Daichi faux whispers to Suga.

“Totally,” the latter agrees. 

Asahi’s smile widens involuntarily despite the taunts. “I won’t,” he promises. “You guys already know, anyway.” They both smile at him, then, and Asahi knows that they really do know what he wants to say. 

The coach blows his whistle, signaling the offense to line up and take the field. Asahi makes his way into the huddle, shoved in tightly next to Hinata and Ennoshita. They chant at their loudest, the words deafening to Asahi’s ears and all meaning other than pure adrenaline lost to him. Then they’re ready for kickoff. Ready and waiting. 

When the ball goes flying, Asahi loses it for just a moment in the light. It comes back into view and spirals right into a small body. Hinata’s frame jolts briefly with the force of the catch, then he’s off and running at full speed. Asahi is sprinting too, making way towards the other team’s side of the field. He’s already running through all the possibilities in his head. Stay open, look for a good pass, block anyone in Hinata’s way, he thinks. His legs move at full speed unconsciously as he keeps track of Hinata and moves to the best position. Hinata makes it to about half-field before the other team get past them and finally pull him down. He pops out of the pile of large bodies with both hands in the air, and the whole team yells their approval as everyone gets ready for the next play. 

“Did you see that Kageyama?”

“See what,” the other boy deadpans, already moving to position for the play. 

“You totally did see it,” Asahi can hear Hinata mumble under his breath. He throws a glance at Suga. “He totally saw it.”

Kageyama shouts the first play of the game confidently. Asahi immediately moves as told and readies himself for the snap. His mind focuses in on their goal to advance on the first down. 

“Ready, hike!”

Asahi takes off in motion. He fakes to the left, then juts out for the right and heads full speed for the sideline. The runs on the edge, glances over his shoulder, and readies himself for the ball. It lands easily in his hands, as it always does when Kageyama makes a precise toss, but instantly a force rams against his side, pushing him out of bounds. He clutches the ball tightly until his momentum slows, then opens up his arms to reassure himself he’s still holding the ball. 

They only gain roughly fifteen yards, and he was almost sure to get pushed out of bounds, but for a first down it’s good progress. The players shout and slap Asahi on the back as he returns to the line. 

“Nice play,” he says to Kageyama, who nods curtly. 

“Wow! Asahi, that was so cool! You should have seen Kageyama’s face, I was so sure he was going to throw it to me that I almost fell over when he didn’t,” Hinata gushes in the commotion of lining back up.

“You knew the play, dumbass,” Kageyama remarks, but Asahi can tell he’s pleased by the praise. 

“Idiot,” Hinata bristles. “Just take the compliment!” 

Kageyama ignores him and calls out the next play. Asahi lowers into a ready stance, waiting for the snap. This time, he watches the other team’s defense. The throw will be going to Hinata, he knows, in a very safe play meant only to advance them similarly to the catch Asahi made. He’s not sure what to expect from the defense, so he watches his mark in front of him and readies himself for the play. 

The defensive lineman’s eyes slide over, at the last second, to Asahi’s right. Before he has time to process the implications of the change, the whistle is blaring for the start of play. Asahi shoots out, but he’s not quicker than the movement of the lineman. He’s a big player, but his speed is disarming when he manages to catch them off guard. Asahi curses himself for not guessing his movements. Kageyama barely has his hands on the ball and Asahi knows this play is already lost.

Before he can warn him, Hinata is flat on the ground, crushed under the weight of the other team’s #83. The play is stopped, but #83 doesn’t move away and rejoin his team. Asahi watches as he props himself up, leans over Hinata’s small frame, and whispers something into his ear. Then, slowly, he pushes himself off the ground. Asahi thinks Hinata looks like a trapped animal under the weight of the lineman; he squirms uncomfortably like a small rabbit trying to get away from a trap. As quickly as the interaction happens, Kageyama is next to the two of them, pulling #83 off Hinata roughly. The referee eyes them, but Kageyama goes on staring daggers into the lineman’s eyes, his mouth forming a thin line. The lineman smiles under his helmet and says, loud enough for Asahi to hear, “#10 looks better under me than he does catching your throws. I’ll get the next tackle too.” 

Kageyama lets out a low growl and lunges forward. Ennoshita is there just in time to push him backwards from the lineman and Hinata takes the chance to scramble to his feet. 

“We don’t need any trouble, boys,” the referee yells over at them. “This is the only warning I’m going to give.” 

Kageyama only looks away when Hinata nudges his side and tugs at his sleeve. Asahi can’t hear what Hinata says to him, but he can see it in his face: he wants to fight this battle fair and square. For all his nerves before the game, he’s completely focused now. Asahi looks back over at #83 and quirks an eyebrow. He may get away with being cheeky in other situations, but there’s no way he knows what he’s up against with this team. Asahi holds his gaze defiantly as he retreats to his side of the foul line. 

That won’t be happening again. 

The plays continue this way for most of the first half of the game. Many of Kageyama and Hinata’s plays don’t work; they other team seems to have more than one solution to their dynamic duo. Most of these involve simply making Hinata unavailable for the play. With so much of their efforts focused around Hinata, though, a lot of other plays are getting through. Asahi wipes his brow, no longer feeling chilled, but sweating instead. Many of the plays are, surprisingly, going to him. With Kageyama and Hinata corned, there’s little else for them to do in terms of reliably scoring points. When they finally manage a touchdown, the ball falling perfectly in Ennoshita’s hands in their zone, Asahi breathes a quiet sigh of relief. He knows they can’t relax, but their efforts are at least paying off. 

Kenma steps up to take the kick off. His shoulders are relaxed and his leg is swinging through normally every time he practices; Asahi has seen him do this a hundred times. Behind him, he hears a yell. 

“Who let that little girl on the field for their kick?!” 

Asahi bristles at the voice. #83 hasn’t kept his mouth shut all game, even if it has been the rest of play since he outright attacked Hinata. His gaze never leaves Kenma, whose back stiffens at the yell, if only slightly. 

“I’ll kill him,” Asahi hears Kuroo’s level, even upbeat, voice behind him. It makes the hairs on the back of his neck stand up and his insides wither. Yeah, that guy has no idea the enemies he’s making, Asahi thinks again. 

They watch as Kenma steps back, then forward again in a slight run. He jacks his leg back and then sends the ball soaring in an instant. Asahi holds his breath. The ball flies through the goal posts, farther to the right than Kenma’s usual precision, but no one other than their team would notice it was anything other than perfect. The crowd of their section goes crazy, yelling Kenma’s name over and over. 

Asahi chances a look over at the sidelines and watches Nishinoya complete a perfect basket toss (he really is getting better at cheer jargon). The cheer squad moves formation, then, into a cheer about their touchdown and extra point. Asahi only tears his eyes away when he sees Kenma approaching off the field, knowing this means defense is on their way onto the field. Kuroo runs out to meet him, grabbing his helmet and shooting his a casual look that can only be masking concern. Kuroo knows better than any of them that Kenma always hits dead center. 

“As if being small or being a girl is an insult, ass wipe,” Kenma spits to himself as he jogs back to their side of the field. Asahi blinks and wonders if he heard that right. He’s never heard Kenma say much, and it’s also rare to see his feathers this ruffled by anything other than Kuroo’s taunts. 

Kuroo just laughs and slaps his back. “Don’t worry, Ken,” he says, keeping his tone lighthearted. “We’ll make them pay for it.” 

It’s all Asahi can do to suppress a shudder. 

“Yuuup, that’s terrifying,” Suga says brightly at Asahi’s side. 

“No kidding,” Daichi agrees.

Soon defense is running off onto the field, ready for the start of play. Asahi watches from the sidelines nervously; the clock is about to run out for half-time, but until then he’s hoping they’ll keep the lead easily enough. The next play happens quickly, the tackle bringing the ball down far enough away from their half of the field that Asahi lets out a breath. It doesn’t take long for them to make it fourth down, and then the offense and defense are switching. Asahi starts to jog out to the field, glancing at the 15 seconds left on the clock. As the other players start moving back to their sides and switching players, Asahi can see Tsukishima hesitating. He’s gripping a player by the front of the jersey with his body positioned so that he’s not in view of the referee. Asahi can tell immediately it’s #83. He hurries over to pull Tsukishima off before anything escalates into a penalty. 

“You’re not the only one who can play dirty of defense,” Tsukishima hisses at him. #83 looks more shaken than he has all night. “I suggest you back off. See, these are our feral gremlins.” Asahi finally makes it over to Tsukishima and nervously puts a hand on his shoulder. Tsukishima lets go of the other man’s jersey and takes a half step back, to Asahi’s relief. “And only I get to talk shit about them.” 

#83 stumbles back a couple paces as Tsukishima turns without another word and runs off the field. Asahi nods for good measure and takes his position. Tsukishima may be an ass, but it certainly does come in handy to scare the ever-living piss out of the other team. Asahi knows better at this point than to mistake his neutral disposition for a level head. 

This time, when the play starts, #83 doesn’t tackle Hinata at all. Asahi wonders what Tsukishima might have said to him before he got over there. Nothing good, if he has to make a guess. 

The timer runs out quickly and the whistle for end of play sounds overhead. The clock resets for their half-time break and Asahi relaxes as he follows his team off the field and into the locker room. His heart sinks for a moment when he realizes he’ll miss the performance at half-time where Nishinoya and the cheer squad will be doing a routine. He also realizes that’s the first time he’s even considered something like that during a game. 

“Good work,” Suga tells him once they’ve all settled down, holding water and sweat towels in their hands. 

“You too,” Asahi says, and he means it. They really have all been playing their best all night. 

“How do you feel?” Daichi asks him, joining them on the bench to rest. Asahi cocks his head and considers it. Even with the extra plays he’s been a part of during the other team’s defensive rampage, he’s feeling like he’ll be good for the rest of the game. 

“Good, actually.”

“You sound surprised,” Daichi laughs. “You’ve been practicing so much, it’s really to be expected.” It might not sound like praise, but Asahi’s chest swells with it anyway. They go on discussing the plays for a little while longer, everyone else in the locker room doing the same. 

“What were you saying to that player, Tsukki?” Asahi perks up at Yamaguchi’s quizzical voice. He’s like to know as well. 

“Nothing, Tadashi.” Tsukishima deadpans. 

“Right, sorry Tsukki!”

The rest of the half-time passes without much incident. They strategize how to keep Kageyama’s passes to the outside instead of the players that have been getting targeted. Hinata is very vocal about not wanting to be left out of the play, to which Kageyama loudly tells him it doesn’t always have to be about him. Hinata just huffs out like a reprimanded child but sits through the rest of the plan in silence. Asahi and Kuroo are where most of the plays in the next half are going to be targeted.

“They’re both big and harder to mark with brute strength,” their coach explains. “If they run into trouble, Hinata, then you’ll need to be open.” 

Hinata stops his pouting after that. 

“Remember, we’re only up by one touchdown,” coach reminds them. “We can’t get lazy or over confident here. Keep playing like you have been, like I know you can, and I know we’ll come out on top here.” 

“And another thing,” Daichi says, addressing the team for the first time, “we don’t need any penalties. They’ve been provoking us a good amount, to say the least, but still. Let them make the mistakes.” Daichi gives Kageyama a pointed look. The other boy just stares back at him, his face an unreadable mask. 

“That means you, wonder boy,” Suga whispers to Asahi.

“Me?” Asahi sputters, his brown eyes blown wide.

“I’ve seen you staring daggers at everyone who gives the boys any trouble. Who knew you had such a vengeful streak?”

Asahi slumps his shoulders and sinks so low on the bench he looks like he might fall off. “I! I do not!”

“I think you broke him,” Oikawa says thoughtfully from beside them on the bench. 

Much to Asahi’s relief, it’s time for them to head back out onto the field. Asahi lets Suga and Daichi go ahead of him so he can regain his composure before he exits the locker room. He really hadn’t noticed he had been doing anything out of the ordinary, but he can admit he’s less scared of inevitable conflict when it’s on the field. It’s expected there. He’s lost in thought as he follows mindlessly behind the others, trying to get his head back in the moment. Regardless of his annoyance with the other team’s sportsmanship, Daichi is right. They can’t afford any penalties. 

As they jogged back out from under the tunnel, Asahi hears a voice he recognizes that cuts through his focus. He immediately gets a feeling in the pit of his stomach that boils up and causes him to clench his fists. 

“All I’m saying in those pom poms are a good look for you,” the voice that had been hitting on Kageyama at the party says. “And I wouldn’t mind showing you just how much I think so.”

Asahi isn’t in direct view of the conversation; he’s not sure where the guy is standing, but he can’t see him as he follows Suga and Daichi back out to the field. He isn’t sure that he wants to know, anyway. He glances behind him and spots Hinata and Kageyama, bickering and non-the-wiser, so he’s able to put his worries to rest. That is, until he hears the response. 

“Is that so?” Nishinoya questions. The rest of the conversation is lost once he’s out of the range to hear it, but it’s enough to make Asahi’s blood run cold. He continues ahead numbly, mostly because he’s unsure of what else to do.

Even after everything, him and Nishinoya never specified they were dating. Asahi wonders how he could have missed that detail until now. They never even spoke about what they were to each other. Asahi’s stomach turns uncomfortably at the thought of Nishinoya’s sleepy head pressed onto someone else’s chest in the morning. He physically shakes his head in the hope that the mental image will fly out one of his ears. It doesn’t. How could he have missed that? For all his constant thoughts about Nishinoya how could he not have thought of that? He tries not to let his mind wander to the obvious reason: he assumed they would be on the same page. That probably wasn’t a fair assumption. 

A hand slaps firmly against his back. “Penny for your thoughts, super star? We’ve got about a minute to solve world hunger or whatever you’re pondering in that big head of yours,” Suga chippers next to him. 

“It’s nothing,” Asahi responds quickly, attempting to keep his tone level. 

Suga hums. “It’s not nothing.” 

After a moment, Asahi sighs. “It’s just something I should have said that I didn’t.”

“You can still say it,” Suga states. “I don’t know what it is, but if it’s this important, just say it.” 

A frown forms on Asahi’s brow. Huh. Well, that’s certainly a lot more straight forward than his own inner monologue. Just say it, eh? He glances over his shoulder at the cheer squad, then the loud buzzer draws his attention back to the field. 

He lets out a breath in an attempt to expel the panic that had been rising in his chest. “I will,” he tells Suga with more zeal than he feels.

“But we’re kind of in the middle of something right now. Could you maybe wait an hour or so?” 

Asahi decides not to dignify his friend with a response. 

Instead, he focuses back on the game. For whatever reason, Suga’s words make him feel better. He flexes him legs and arms experimentally to distract himself while they wait for the start of play. To his relief, nothing is stiff from the break. He pulls at his biceps to loosen them anyway, and Suga starts to do the same. 

“We can get a couple more,” Hinata says brightly, bouncing into view. 

“Huh?” Tsukishima replies blandly. 

“More touchdowns!” 

Tsukishima rolls his eyes and goes back to retying his cleats. 

“Obviously,” Kageyama says in his annoyed but fond tone. The freshman continue to bicker, mostly because Hinata refuses to leave well enough alone with Tsukishima. Asahi can’t help but grin at their antics, and he notices the rest of the team around them doing the same. Kuroo chuckles as Tsukishima bats Hinata away like a fly without any of his usual sinister intent. Kenma looks almost more pleased than impassive when Hinata bops over to say something to him, which is saying something. 

“He changes the mood so easily,” Asahi observes. 

Suga just nods next to him, but when Asahi looks over he can see his eyes are glassy. 

“Oh my god, Sugawara,” Asahi says, feigning shock, “are you about to say something sappy?” He sticks out his tongue in a ‘yuck’ gesture for good measure. 

“Shut up.” 

Their coach blows his whistle and waves his hands at them to take the field. Asahi scans the other team again as they line up and wait for Kageyama to call out the play. #83 doesn’t appear to be attempting to man-mark Hinata anymore, but Asahi watches him closely anyway. Kageyama calls out the play, and Asahi readies himself to make his run.

The play goes on for another quarter mostly in a stalemate. The other team’s defense may have momentarily backed off, but their offense starts making bolder plays as time begins to run out. They lose as much ground as they gain, but it puts Asahi on his toes nonetheless. Asahi makes more than a few good plays, but none of them result in another touchdown. At the beginning of the fourth and last quarter, the other team is on their fourth down and only 5 yards away from a touchdown. Asahi can practically see the defensive line’s tension from the sidelines. 

When the play starts, most of the action is blocked from Asahi’s line of vision. He steps closer unconsciously and he hears Ennoshita next to him inhale sharply. Then everyone is cursing. Asahi flicks his eyes to the scoreboard, which flashes from 7-0 to 7-6, and then back to the field. He can see one player in a black and orange jersey is still on the ground. 

“What the fuck!” Asahi spins and sees Nishinoya stepping off the track and angrily towards the field, his loud voice carrying to everyone standing on the sidelines. He watches for a second and sees Kiyoko manage to grab his arm before he makes it too far onto the field. Asahi turns back, but now he’s fairly sure who was hit on the last play. 

“Was that Tanaka,” he breathes to no one in particular, not taking his eyes off the field. 

“Yeah,” Daichi answers, his frustration evident. “He got pulled down, I saw it.”

“It should have been a penalty,” Tsukishima says evenly. 

“They’re not going to call it?” 

“This is bullshit!” Asahi hears Nishinoya yelling from the sidelines. Loudly, the crowd starts a call out chant that echoes through the air: ‘Nuts and bolts! Nuts and bolts! Looks like we got SCREWED!’ Oikawa sing-songs the tune along with the crowd under his breath, which makes Daichi promptly tell him to knock it off. 

After a few times through, the chant dies down and just becomes a loud group of boys yelling, “get off your knees and stop blowing the game!” At the referee. Overall, the aftermath is chaos of the fans screaming, the team ready to storm the field, and Nishinoya ready to fight one on one with anyone in his war path. Asahi just clenches his fists at his side and stares diligently, waiting for Tanaka to get up with the trainer. 

When Tanaka finally makes it to his feet, the trainer leads him through a few more exercises, most likely to test to a concussion or any other obvious injuries. The trainer turns back to the referee and gives a thumbs up, which makes Asahi let out a deep breath in relief. The crowd, however, loses their collective shit. They start chanting Tanaka’s name and number as he trots off the field with his fist dramatically in the air. 

“Was that overkill?” Ennoshita asks skeptically. 

“No, man,” Tanaka says through a smile when he gets back to the sideline. 

“So they’re really going to let them keep that touchdown?” Hinata whines while poking at all Tanaka’s visible bruises and then checking his face for a reaction. “That’s completely unfair.” Another poke. 

Tanaka bats his hand away and gives him a look. “I’m really surprised they haven’t called more of it. I just got unlucky, offense has been pulling cheap shit like that all night.” 

Asahi raises his eyebrows at that. They must be better at it than he realized, because they haven’t been making very many visible penalties.

“Noya was about to run onto the field and start tackling the other team,” Suga says to Tanaka.

“I believe that, you should see how he acts when defense pulls that shit on you guys,” Tanaka gives Asahi a pointed look as if to say, ‘I mean you’.

Asahi just gives Tanaka an encouraging slap on the back and then runs back onto the field for the next play. For most of the fourth quarter, the plays are uneventful and don’t amount to much on either side. Only one tackle sends Hinata flying to the degree Kageyama is seething at the other team’s throat again, which Asahi counts as a tentative win when nobody’s face ends up bloody. The time ticks by agonizingly slow until there’s only a minute left on the clock. They’re on the third down, 15 yards from a touchdown. The sweat is running down Asahi’s face and catching uncomfortably in his eyes, his helmet making it difficult to wipe the sweat away. They played through to the fourth down before they got another first and are nearly through another set. In short, offense is tired. Hinata keeps up his energy, but the guarding on him is still too steady to be able to rely only on his agility. 

Kageyama calls out the play. Asahi lets out a breath and watches as the hot air curls into the dark sky. 

“Ready, hike!” 

He makes his run. He fakes out the lineman in front of him and then beelines for the short catch. Hinata crosses in front of him, sprinting so close to him that his blocker nearly runs into Asahi instead. Good. Asahi doesn’t have an eye on his own mark, but he reaches out in blind faith anyway. He prays that Kageyama can see the moment that his blocker is obstructed by Hinata and deliver the ball as intended. It’s a risky and extremely difficult throw to get exactly right; even so, Asahi readies himself. He takes another stride, and then he feels the weight of the ball perfectly cradled in the nook of his elbow. He grins, and then he runs like hell for the endzone. 

It takes a second before he realizes they’ve won the game. Then everyone is cheering, and his teammates are jumping on his shoulders and the reality of the situation crashes down on him in an instant. There’s 40 seconds left and they’re a touchdown ahead. Asahi throws his head back and lets out a yell. Before he knows it there’s a weight on his back and out of the corner of his eyes he can see Hinata’s orange head of hair.

“Ahhhhh! That was so cool! I went by like swoosh, but then you were already ready to thwoop and they were all like HUH?” Hinata screams animatedly in his ear. He starts to run off the field, not even bothering with trying to push Hinata off. On the sidelines the team comes out to meet them, everyone cheering and clapping their backs. 

“Let’s go Kenma!” Asahi bellows. 

Kenma trots onto the field, his usual composure and his calculated movements seemingly unaffected by everyone else’s collective craze. He lines up and makes his kick; this time, he hits dead center. Asahi hears Kuroo yelling the loudest of all as everyone goes crazy for his perfect extra point.  
The cheer squad starts a chant for the defensive line, but it’s not long before the last play is called and the final buzzer blows. Asahi swings his head back around to the score board to check, and sure enough it reads 14-6.

It doesn’t take long for the excitement of the first win of the season to get to the boys, Asahi included. They celebrate together and the crowd cheers for their win. They sing a fight song, and the band plays their victory march from the stands. Asahi smiles at Daichi and Suga, who both pump their fists as the team gathers their gear to head off the field. Asahi sees Tanaka in the middle of the mess screaming his fool head off, even with his nose shoved full of bloody gauze, so he assumes he’s at least mostly alright. Hinata is clinging to Kageyama now, who looks flustered and about as excited as Kageyama can look. Kuroo smiles slyly at Kenma, who just ducks his heads and pushes his way through the other excited bodies. Asahi spots Yamaguchi excitedly telling Tsukishima a recount of his best block of the night. Tsukishima has a look on his face like he doesn’t want to let on how much he enjoys winning, but Asahi knows he’s pleased. 

Asahi’s chest swells. Like a family, he thinks to himself. 

\- 

In all the commotion after the game, it’s difficult to spot Nishinoya for a while. Asahi and the others end up in the locker room for a while recounting their game and getting feedback from the coach. Asahi changes his clothes after a quick shower, not wanting to be wet with sweat a second longer than he had to, and hurries back out to the stands. Once the craze clears and the crowd parts as people start to leave, Asahi sees him.

He’s put his warm-ups back on, his hands are buried in his pockets and he shivers just slightly as he beams over at Asahi. He removes one of his small hands to wave, jumping just a little in excitement. He steadies himself and smiles that confident smile. Asahi’s heart twists painfully in his chest. 

“Look at you, MVP,” he whistles. Asahi can’t help but blush. He steels himself the best he can and walks over to Nishinoya. 

“Uh oh,” Nishinoya teases with a smile, “I know that look.” Asahi almost loses his nerve, because the thing is, he can tell he’s made Nishinoya at least a little uncomfortable. He’s never been good at hiding his feelings; he can’t put on a brave face like Nishinoya can. He can’t do half the things he can, maybe, so he wasn’t sure at first that he would be able to ‘just say it’ like Suga told him. But he knows what Nishinoya said to him when he stirred awake Thursday morning. When he looked up at him and said, as bright as anything Asahi had ever seen, “I could get used to this feeling.”

And Asahi was already lost in it then. All he wants is to lose himself in it and not look back. So, he’s able to say it. “Don’t go with him.”

Nishinoya raises an eyebrow. “Do you mean with Tanaka to get ice cream? I mean, he only just asked, and I don’t mind turning him down, but…” He trails off after looking at Asahi’s face for a moment. 

“Oh, I see. You heard that. Listen-”

Asahi cuts him off. “Just, hang on a second.” He takes a deep breath. “I’m sorry if I wasn’t clear about how I feel about you. I just wish I would have told you. There’s probably a lot of people out there more deserving of your time than… well, than me. But I want to be perfectly clear. I’m selfish. I want to warm up your cold hands every morning after you make me run until I puke. I want your fingers in my hair even when it’s not helplessly amiss. I want to give you my sweatshirt when you stay over, and I want to cuddle you anyway. I want your mom to make me pancakes again, even if it means that we will very awkwardly have to explain that we are in fact dating. Yeah, that’ll be weird. But whatever. I mean that I want to be selfish. I want to be dating, and I only want to be dating you.” He exhales, and with it the last of his adrenaline-fueled confidence leaves his body.

“Fuck off, loser. My boyfriend could crush you with his thighs.”

Asahi just blinks at him.

“Well, I wouldn’t have said that and rejected that jerk so rudely if I knew you were gonna confess twice,” Nishinoya drawls through a grin. He spreads out his hands dramatically. “Maybe I should thank him.”

Asahi looks at Nishinoya again; under the harsh lights he looks almost illuminous himself. Hinata may be the sun, bright and touching everything, but Nishinoya looks like the night sky. It’s not hard to look into, but soon you’re falling into a feeling that it’s all too much and not enough at the same time. Like you’re small, but at the same time like you’re the only person in the world with that specific view. Asahi thinks he could look forever and not be able to comprehend the magnitude of what he’s seeing. All he can do is stare in awe at each glistening part of Nishinoya. And he wants forever to look.

Then Asahi doesn’t think. He pulls Nishinoya into a bone crushing hug. 

“While we’re being selfish, there is something that I want, too,” Nishinoya squeaks out breathily against his chest. Asahi pull away reluctantly.

Before he can comprehend the movement, Nishinoya’s lips are crashing down on his own. Like everything Nishinoya does, the kiss has a force behind it that stirs Asahi’s entire being into action. He kisses him back and grabs his flushed cheeks, trapping him in their embrace. Asahi’s whole body lights up with the feeling of Nishinoya and his stomach flips happily. Nishinoya’s lips are cold, Asahi realizes. He parts his mouth to encompass more of Nishinoya, deepening the kiss. Like everything Nishinoya does, he’s a phenomenal kisser. Before Asahi can think, Nishinoya’s tongue is sliding against his own. Asahi ducks his head without breaking the kiss to wrap his arms around Nishinoya’s back. He lifts him up slightly, so neither of them are tilting their heads. Their noses brush against each other, giving Asahi his first sobering thought. He pulls away and plants a kiss on the tip of Nishinoya’s rosy nose, just like he had wanted to earlier, and pulls him more firmly against his chest. Nishinoya takes advantage of the moment to plant a wet kiss on Asahi’s neck before snuggling into the crook of his shoulder. 

“Um, anyway.” The sound of Daichi’s voice causes Asahi to startle and spin wildly around to face him. Nishinoya makes a painstakingly undignified yelp, which reminds Asahi he’s still holding the other boy off the ground. 

“You scared me!” Asahi rattles off as Nishinoya squirms out of his grasp. His feet hit the track and he spins around so they’re both facing Daichi, Suga, and Tanaka as they approach. 

“What else is new,” Daichi chuckles. 

“We didn’t know you were… busy,” Suga says, raising his eyebrows suggestively. Asahi can feel his face heating up from the implication.

“Too bad you missed the best part,” Nishinoya teases with a wink. Tanaka groans and shoots Asahi a glare. Asahi just sputters lamely as his face continues to redden. 

“Ice cream time already? Me and my boyfriend here would love to join,” Nishinoya draws out the word ‘boyfriend’ and makes a face at Asahi while he does it. He bounces up on his tiptoes and plants a kiss on the side of Asahi’s mouth for good measure, like he’s proving the point. 

Asahi throws a helpless glance over to Suga and Daichi, who both shrug their shoulders at him. 

“Yuu, you’re going to be the death of me,” Asahi finally groans. 

“I’m sure trying to be!”

Then Nishinoya grins so wide that his eyes crinkle and close with the effort, and Asahi’s heart squeezes in his chest; yes, Yuu very well might be the death of him. But he’s a lost cause already, so all he does is smile back.


	8. do you know what trespassing is?

“Are you sure I’m ready for this?” Asahi asks nervously. “We could have used more practice.”

Beside him, Nishinoya lets out a breath that’s visible against the night air. They both stare at the fire in front of them, blazing brightly and illuminating the school parking lot. 

“I know you’re not questioning my coaching methods right now,” Nishinoya replies with an offended tone. Asahi’s cheeks start to heat up, but then Nishinoya reaches out and grabs Asahi’s hand in his. He gives a reassuring squeeze and takes a half step closer to Asahi. 

“You’ll be great,” Nishinoya says. “And if you’re not then it’ll end up a comedy and nobody will even know the difference!”

“And to think I was almost comforted for a moment there.”

Nishinoya laughs, free and easy, and the regardless of what he says, the sound does soothe Asahi enough for him to relax his shoulders. 

Tonight is the night before their homecoming game, one of the last games before the end of their official season. After their first game, the team continued their winning streak raking up a 10-1 record. The homecoming game will be against a rival school, but they’re favored to win. Regardless, the school has been spending the whole week prepping for the game. Spirit week, Asahi quickly learned, is no joke. 

The first themed day of the week had been “Greek day,” to which most students interpreted as coming to school in frat or sorority attire. Nishinoya, on the other hand, had strutted up to the table Asahi, Suga, and Daichi were sitting at that Monday clad in a loosely fitting, poorly draped toga tied up around his waist. 

“I think there’s steam coming out of Asahi’s ears,” Suga had joked at the site. Needless to say, Nishinoya got dress coded and waved his detention slip around at lunch like a prize. 

Kenma and Kuroo showed up in matching Camp Half-Blood t-shirts, even if the joke was lost on a good amount of the team. 

“What’s that mean, Kenma?” Hinata had asked in the locker room, slipping his own polo shirt with an obnoxious popped collar over his shoulders. “Why is that Greek themed?” 

“It’s from a book,” Kenma deadpanned, which immediately made Hinata scrunch up his nose. 

The other spirit days had ended in an equal amount of chaos. For decades day, Tsukishima showed up sporting dinosaur gear. When Hinata informed him that wasn’t what decades meant, Tsukishima replied, “well they didn’t say what decade, did they?” 

Asahi still hadn’t ever seen Hinata’s face more red. 

Asahi’s personal favorite had been the parade the whole town got to partake in. Sports teams, class groups, clubs, community groups, and businesses all had floats in the parade that made its way through most of the downtown area. Most of the football team decided to forgo other groups they were a part of to walk with the team, but Suga, Daichi, and Asahi had decided to ride the senior float. Each class got to pick their own theme, which resulted in each class competing for the best float. In the end, the seniors had ended up filling their whole trailer with sand and bringing in a grill and other beach-themed decorations. Daichi got the grill running and Asahi manned the cooler, so they were constantly producing grilled hotdogs and hamburgers for the other students and anyone who came out to watch the parade. The other seniors on the float helped make juice blended drinks and set up a speaker to play music as they went. 

Competitive as ever, Hinata and Kageyama had practically lost their minds when the senior float was much better than the freshman float. Theirs was built into a giant pinball machine with a few different freshman inside working the moving parts, which had been designed by the robotics club led by Tsukishima. Painted largely on the front was the mascot of their own team with the high score of the game and the mascot of the other team with the phrase ‘game over!’ across its the scoreboard.  
Both boys complained loudly that they thought their float was better, but they begrudgingly accepted some of the food Daichi had grilled after. 

The junior class, to nobody’s surprise, had a poorly built float that was meant to resemble a fortress, or something of the sort, but it was clear they had never finished building it. The junior class, including Nishinoya and Tanaka, sat outside of the float. Their float had more members of their class representing it than any other float in the parade. It was so full of people that they had to stand to fit everyone, and even then a few people jumped on at the last minute, their legs dangling off the side of the float as it crawled along main street.

“Who on this earth would want to be seen with that mess?” Oikawa spat when he saw it. “Embarrassing.”

The festivities of the week are coming to an even more dramatic close. The infamous bonfire and pep rally are taking place tonight. The student council struck a deal with the junkyard in town and got them to tow out an old car to the parking lot. They spray painted it in the other team’s colors and had been charging a small fee to beat the ever-living shit out of it all week long. Tonight, however, it happens to be the source of the fire. 

What the student body doesn’t know is that the cheerleading squad and the football team prepared a routine working together. The plan is to interrupt and take over the speech the coach will be giving at the close of the night. The team voted and decided it was worth the running they would be sentenced to after the game. Regardless of the fact that they had practiced the routine countless times, Asahi can’t help but be anxious about the routine. His role is basing for Nishinoya’s stunt group, so he’s already worried enough about dropping his boyfriend. Not to mentioned dropping his boyfriend in front of the entire school. His stomach starts to churn again. 

“Asahi,” Nishinoya halts his racing thoughts. “I can practically hear the gears turning in your head.” He raises an eyebrow. “You know, sometimes I get worried that I’ll mess up a cheer or something in front of everyone at a game or at a competition.”

“Do you really?” Asahi says skeptically. 

“Not so much anymore. With the squad we aren’t really by ourselves, so our mistakes don’t matter as much, ya know? Like in a game. If you miss a block, yeah it might cause problems, but most likely somebody else will get the block. Or maybe the ball goes somewhere else entirely and it doesn’t even matter that you missed it at all.”

Asahi frowns and thinks about that. “Yuu, that logic isn’t exactly-”

“All I’m saying is that I’ve got you too.” The sudden softness of Nishinoya’s tone makes Asahi snap his mouth closed. “I probably can’t catch you. You weigh a lot.” 

The students mill around the parking lot, mostly talking amongst themselves or partaking in some of the small events set up. The fire continues to burn, hot enough to be felt on Asahi’s face even though they aren’t sitting on the benches near it. A similar warmth pools in Asahi’s chest at Nishinoya’s words. The edges of his lips etch up into a grin. 

“I trust you.”

Nishinoya stretches up and presses his lips softly against Asahi’s cheek. He lingers for a moment, and Asahi can feel Nishinoya’s warm breath fan over his skin. Nishinoya reaches a hand out to steady himself and grabs a fist of Asahi’s sleeve, scrunches the fabric of his team sweatshirt in with his fingers. Asahi takes advantage of the time and turns into Nishinoya, so they face each other. Nishinoya is still extremely close, his proximity making Asahi’s whole body suddenly alert. Nishinoya’s eyes are blown wide open and he quickly blinks a few times up at Asahi. 

“What?” Asahi breathes, reading his expression as a sort of surprise. 

“I love you.” Nishinoya says in fascination. “I’m in love with you,” he says again, like he’s pondering how the phrase sounds aloud. “I love everything about you.”

Asahi makes a soft sound in the back of his throat, completely unable to form a meaningful thought. Nishinoya doesn’t pay this any mind. 

“I love you for thinking I’m the strong one out of the two of us. Gods, Asahi. I’ve never met someone with a heart bigger than yours. You’re scared of a lot of things, but you don’t ever get scared of getting hurt by people. It doesn’t ever stop you. You cry and laugh and care about everyone and you aren’t scared of it at all.” 

He presses another kiss against Asahi’s mouth, which is hanging open in surprise. 

“Yeah, I definitely love you. I’m not scared to love you.” 

Nishinoya is still so close. Asahi wants to take another step and close the distance between them, but he can’t stop looking into Nishinoya’s eyes. The brown of them is so deep and warm and unguarded; it’s something Asahi rarely gets to see. It’s the most beautiful thing he can imagine. 

“Yuu,” Asahi whispers thickly. 

Nishinoya gives a small smile and steps forward instead, wrapping his arms tightly around Asahi’s midsection. Instinctively Asahi’s arms pull around Nishinoya’s shoulders and he dips his head into the crook of Nishinoya’s shoulder, burrowing into his neck. 

“I love you too,” he murmurs against Nishinoya’s skin. His eyes are closed but he can feel the goosebumps that form under the sensitive skin on his lips. Nishinoya pulls back and looks at him again with that expression on his face and the stars in his eyes.

“I know.” His smile is so amazing that it makes Asahi’s heart skip in his chest. 

They stay that way for a long time. Pressed at each other’s sides, just enjoying the warmth of the fire and the atmosphere created by all their classmates. Asahi’s head swims happily and he can’t keep a smile from his face. As nervous as he had been for this night, there’s only room for love in his chest with Nishinoya so close. They chat about absolutely nothing, and every time Nishinoya laughs it sounds like music to Asahi. There’s an air of magic about it, but Asahi isn’t scared when it ends. He knows that no matter what he’ll carry this feeling with him for as long as Nishinoya will let him. 

“Hey guys!” Daichi, Suga, and Tanaka spot them and start towards them. Nishinoya waves at them excitedly. 

“Hey guys! You ready for tonight?” Nishinoya calls to them. As soon as he starts speaking Daichi desperately starts waving his hands in the air and gesturing for him to stop. Nishinoya knits his eyebrows together in confusion. 

Suga groans and mouths at Asahi, ‘please help’. 

Tanaka lets out a loud, pathetic sound from behind them. Suga and Daichi’s faces both twist in annoyance. 

“What am I going to do, Noya bro?”

Asahi sends Nishinoya a questioning look.

“About what?” 

“It’s Kiyoko!” He moans miserably, letting his shoulders sag. 

“What’s the problem? You get to be paired up with her for the dance,” Nishinoya reminds him, his tone only slightly teasing. “And that’s saying something. I’m not kidding, I think every single football player asked me to be her partner when I was choregraphing.”

“I didn’t,” Asahi says blandly. 

“Gay,” Nishinoya says over his shoulder, his lips quirked up in a smirk. He turns back to Tanaka and pokes his shoulder. 

“He’s been like this all night,” Suga whispers to Asahi, shaking his head. “I’m starting to think it’s a lost cause.” Daichi crosses his arms over his chest and nods solemnly. 

“He’s been over the moon to practice with her, so what’s the problem?” Asahi asks, genuinely confused. 

Suga glances over to where Nishinoya is teasing Tanaka, and seeing that both of them look preoccupied, he leans in closer to Asahi. “The rumor is he that he wants to ask her out, but he’s too chicken shit to do it.”

“I heard that!” Tanaka growls loudly. Suga rolls his eyes and sticks his tongue out at Tanaka. 

“She says no to everyone, so the worst than could happen is it’s just the same as all those other guys that ask her out.” 

“Daichi, has anyone ever told you that you’re the worst?”

“No,” Daichi states. 

“Is the theme tonight just giving out bad advice or something?” Asahi sighs, rubbing his temples with his hands. “Wait, Tanaka, you’ve never asked her out before?”

“Does asking for her hand in marriage count?” Nishinoya snickers. Asahi shoots him a pointed look. 

“Okay, here’s the plan,” Suga says, lowering his voice and arranging his face to look a little too serious. Asahi narrows his eyes at the suspicious behavior. “At the end of the routine when the crowd is crying and cheering and it’s time for the big dramatic finish, swoop her and tell her this.” Suga pauses for a moment to put on his best Tanaka impression before continuing, “’I want to dance with you more, come to homecoming with me’.” Suga leans down and puckers his lips to kiss the air, making an obnoxious noise while doing so. Tanaka’s face is bright red. 

“Oh my god, Suga,” he says. “You’re a genius!”

Asahi gives him an unbelieving look. “You can’t be serious.” Nishinoya sputters, trying to hold in his laugh. 

“I’ll even help you practice,” Suga tells him, his smile growing wider. “Just to make sure you get it right.”

“Someone stop him, please,” Asahi pleads to no one in particular. 

“This is going to be too good,” Nishinoya snorts, still suppressing a fit of laughter. 

The group sticks together for a while, moving closer to the fire and the rest of the students. Asahi slips his hand into Nishinoya’s as they walk, letting a smile play on his face at the familiar banter between his friends. They see some of their other teammates milling around. Asahi watches as Hinata convinces Kageyama to give him a piggyback ride around to all the different small games set up, Kageyama grumbling the whole time. 

Asahi and NIshinoya break away for half an hour or so to try their hand at the games as well. The games are mostly carnival style, although they’re set up using mostly whatever the school already had around. Asahi wins a game of strength, which Nishinoya insisted that he play, and gives the small prize to Nishinoya. He takes it and pops the blueberry flavored sucker into his mouth, then shoves the wrapper into Asahi’s pocket instead of his own. Asahi raises his eyebrow at him but can’t bring himself to do anything other than smile when he sees that Nishinoya’s lips are already turning a faint shade of blue. 

They try multiple different sets of precision games, most of which neither of them are any good at. Nishinoya finally beats Asahi in a game of ring toss, and Asahi thinks it was probably do to luck rather than skill, but he cheers for Nishinoya anyway.

“Getting your ass whooped, Asahi?” A familiar voice calls from behind them. Asahi’s face scrunches up in confusion. 

“You guys made it!” Nishinoya exclaims excitedly. 

“Bokuto? Akaashi?” Asahi questions. The two of them walk over, Bokuto with his hand raised in greeting. Both of them are wearing their school gear in a size suspiciously too big for Nishinoya. The bright orange looks almost hilariously out of place on Bokuto, making him stand out even more than he already does. Asahi raises his eyebrow at Nishinoya. 

“You can’t wear 3 sweatshirts at once,” Nishinoya huffs at him. He turns his attention back to the others. “You’re gonna be just in time!”

“We wouldn’t miss it,” Akaashi says. Even though his tone is neutral, he takes in Nishinoya’s energetic welcome with a fond smile. 

“We knew you’d make this one into a cheerleader eventually!” Bokuto says, slapping his hand on Asahi’s back. “Man, you have to come back to our gym sometime! Super lame of you to not show up.”

“You didn’t really need to trespass to ask me to come back, you know,” Asahi teases. 

“We aren’t trespassing! Just supporting our friends!” A pause. Then, cautiously, “right Akaashi?”

“Bokuto, do you know what trespassing is?” Akaashi asks impassively. Bokuto knits his eyebrows together and scratches the side of his face. 

“Sure I do,” he doesn’t sound convinced anymore. He brightens immediately and points behind them to the game they had been playing. “Can we give it a shot?”

“Go for it,” Nishinoya encourages. 

Asahi, Nishinoya, and Akaashi wait and watch patiently as Bokuto plays the game. He doesn’t win the first time, but he insists on playing again until he does. Akaashi starts to give him some pointers after a couple rounds, and eventually he makes enough successful throws to win the game.

“It wasn’t that hard!” He says proudly, tossing the ring pop prize over to Akaashi. They move away from the booth so the next people in line can play and start to make their way closer to the fire. Once Akaashi puts the ring in his pack, Bokuto’s eyes flit over to Nishinoya and Asahi. Briefly, they glance over Asahi and Nishinoya’s intertwined hands. Bokuto gives Asahi a wide-eyed look and flashes them a wide grin. 

“Oh yeah,” Nishinoya says after watching the interaction, “me and Asahi are dating now.” He holds their hands up and waves them around for a second in front of Bokuto and Akaashi.

“How nice, I’m happy for you,” Akaashi replies politely. 

Bokuto looks like his top is about to pop off. “I knew you were pining!” He shouts, pointing at Asahi. “I knew it, Akaashi!”

Nishinoya raises his head to give Asahi an amused look. “Oh?”

“He totally was!”

“I think I see Daichi,” Asahi interrupts hurriedly. He pulls on Nishinoya and quickens their pace to make his way over to where Daichi and Suga are standing. They’re backs are turned, but they spin around when they hear Asahi’s voice. 

“Oh, there you are.” When they just continue to stare, he adds, “it’s time to change,” while motioning to the rest of the group he’s already gathered. 

“That’s our cue,” Nishinoya says. Asahi gives a small wave to Bokuto and Akaashi, and they promise to find them again after their routine. 

“Make us proud!” Bokuto adds for good measure, throwing them both a thumbs up. 

To be an inconspicuous as possible, all the cheerleaders and football players had been slowly breaking away from the group and gathering near the outskirts of the parking lot where the locker room let out. Daichi unlocked the door to give everyone somewhere to change. 

For the dramatics of the event, the two groups decided to switch their normal attire. In accordance with the plan, Asahi shuts himself into a changing room and does his best to pull on the piece of cloth given to him by Nishinoya. After fidgeting with the zipper and twisting the fabric to what he assumes is the right position, he lets out a breath. Asahi opens the door to the stall and nervously glances around. All the other football players, like him, are wearing bright orange cheerleading skirts. 

Hinata is doing experimental squats in his, twisting all around unnecessarily. “This is kind of nice!” He finally decides, looking over at Kageyama for approval. Kageyama’s face is bright red, his head tilted purposefully away from Hinata. 

“Idiot,” he grumbles. 

Oikawa puts his hand on his hip and raises an eyebrow at Hinata. “Hey, Tobio, maybe-”

His sentence is cut off when he lets out a small yelp as Iwazumi slaps him hard on the ass. 

“Hey, Shittykawa, maybe shut up.”

“So rude!”

Asahi sees Tsukihisma walk out next to him. On his tall frame, the skirt is almost scandalously too short. His arms are crossed in front of his chest, his face scrunched in a scowl.

“Hey, um, Tsukki,” Yamaguchi starts, sounding nervous and rubbing the back of his neck.

“Shut up, Tadashi,” Tsukishima bristles. “I already know.”

Everyone stands in the locker room for an awkward amount of time, almost as if everyone is having a collective ‘oh shit we’re really about to go do this’ moment. Only Hinata seems unbothered, pulling at Kageyama’s hair, unfazed, in an attempt to get the taller boy to look down. It doesn’t work. 

Oikawa lets out an impatient sigh. “The night isn’t getting any younger,” he says happily, pushing the locker room door open and stepping back outside. The door slams behind him, but after a beat everyone starts to follow. 

The first thing Asahi notices is that his jersey goes damn near down to Nishinoya’s knees. Instantly the sight of Nishinoya sporting his clothes, as always, goes straight to the pit of his stomach. Hinata offered to let him wear his, since they’re closer in size, but Nishinoya is unmistakably wearing his anyway. He clears his throat awkwardly. Nishinoya spins around and as soon as he sees him, his entire face splits into a grin. 

“Hot damn,” Nishinoya says shamelessly. Color immediately floods Asahi’s cheeks. 

Nishinoya just smirks knowingly, putting his hands confidently on his hips. Asahi feels like his head must be about to explode, so he puts his face in his hands and shakes his head in an attempt to start thinking straight. He lets out an exasperated sound, which just makes Nishinoya laugh. 

Nishinoya jogs over to him and pulls his hands away from his face, holding them out to the side long enough to reach up and tilt his mouth to Asahi’s ear. “How can you be embarrassed when you look this good?”

“Yuu!” Asahi chokes out in surprise. 

Still laughing, Nishinoya steps back quickly, leaving Asahi reeling, and pulls him around the stage set up with the rest of the group. The cheerleaders run through the steps a few more times for the football players, all of whom look a decidedly more nervous about a dance than any game they’ve ever played. 

“Do you remember all the steps?” Nishinoya asks after a minute. Asahi tells him that he does. 

Kiyoko motions for everyone to get quieter. “Okay everyone, let’s get in our starting positions and wait for Daichi’s signal. Your coach is about to go on.”

Everyone heads her order, rushing to get into the formation they’ll take the stage in. The cheerleaders are hoisted onto the shoulders of their pair to start, along with some of the smaller football boys that had to be paired up due to the squad’s smaller numbers. The pairs then arrange themselves in groups based on their stunting groups for the more complex parts of the routine. 

Asahi leans down, and as they practiced a thousand times, helps Nishinoya climb onto his shoulders. Nishinoya tucks his feet neatly behind Asahi’s back and plants his hands on Asahi, securing himself. He shifts his weight to a more comfortable placement on Asahi’s shoulder blades, allowing Asahi to relax and easily support his weight. 

Kageyama and Hinata, the other half of their stunt group, get into position near them. Asahi can see Hinata squirming around on Kageyama’s shoulders, and watches as Kageyama reaches up his slap his thigh. The two only stop bickering after Kiyoko turns like a hawk and gives them a cold, silencing look. Then most of the chatter dies down as they wait. 

Nishinoya move his head slightly to look down at Asahi from his propped position on his shoulders. 

“We’re gonna be great,” he says. His voice leaves no room for argument, like it’s an absolute fact that they’ll be perfect. Asahi can’t help but believe him; Nishinoya’s confidence is practically contagious. 

“Yeah,” Asahi nods. He takes his eyes off of Daichi, who is waiting to give them the signal, to tilt his head up at Nishinoya. 

“Toss me higher than anyone else, okay? As high as you can,” Nishinoya demands fiercely, his eyes meeting Asahi’s. Looking up at Nishinoya, Asahi isn’t worried anymore. He thinks again that he might be able to do anything with Nishinoya looking at him like that. 

“I will,” Asahi whispers with intensity, like it’s a promise just for them. 

“You’ll catch me.” It’s a truth, not a question. 

“I will,” Asahi says again.


End file.
